Tidy

December 28, 2009 by johnblakey

Tidy 28 December 2009

I am tidying up, a mania for order and neatness has over come me and now everything has a place and everything is in its place, I hope! I like order but as soon as I turn my back entropy works its way and disorder starts to creep in and before you know everything is back to one glorious mess.
I heave boxes of old newspaper cuttings out and into the green bin, its a feeling of relief after all if I have not looked at them for several years I am unlikely to to suddenly want to go through them, am I? Suddenly I have a vision of space, space to put things, not cramped and full of things but space and everything filed and in its place, wonderful!
Mary wants a newspaper cutting for her fellow book group member, Joyce, I thought I had too efficiently put them all in the green bin, I get them all out bit no cutting, where can it be? Its about an old columnist in the Yorkshire Post. We scratch out heads and ponder this deep and puzzling matter, Oh where can it be? In the newspaper on the table literally in front of our noses! Typical!
I put some old books that I will never read on to Amazon to sell. Is it a sign, or maturity, of growing old to realise that there are books out there that you will never, never ever read? All these people selling books for 1 penny, thousands of them. Its the £2.75p postage that the live on. But erotic dots can go for £4, the nearest second hand copy is £10 and some chancer is wanting £39 for a new copy.
The cats don’t really approve of all this moving around, disturbing them, they have important thoughts to think, things to do. I feed them absent mindedly, but I can see that they are still pining for that delicious German cat food. Poor things perhaps they will get some more next Christmas. I give them an new clean bowl, are they pleased? Not a bit mournful looks and pitiful wails, thats what I get.
I put on a pheasant small but solid and tough looking and peel some garlic and leave it to simmer in the slow cooker for seven hours, it smells delicious. I make a salad avocado, tomato, red pepper all contrasting gayly with the green olives. I do some rice too, the pheasant meet is good but I thinks its better cooking the veg along with it. The next pheasant is rather large perhaps I can make it last two days, we shall see.
The snow is melting some small stubborn patches still linger, but most of it has gone, the weather man looking serious warns us not to get complacent, more wintery weather is on its way hurrah, just in time for New Year.
We watch the The Belles of St Trinians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belles_of_St_Trinian%27s Utterly delightful, I manage to beat Mary at Scrabble, just for once!

Postcards

Pleasurewood Hills, American Theme park, Suffolk, England

Pleasurewood Hills, American Theme park, Suffolk, England

Being very well looked after, English B&Bs

Being very well looked after, English B&Bs

Sea Life Centre lovely fish

Sea Life Centre lovely fish

Bamforth Merry message series: We’ll be dropping in one of those days

Bamforth Merry message series: We'll be dropping in one of those days

Niagara falls, Gough’s cave, Cheddar, Avon, England

Niagara falls, Gough's cave, Cheddar, Avon, England

Obituary: David Taylor: Labour MP for Leicestershire North West

In April the Labour MP David Taylor was seventh in a newspaper poll of 592 MPs ranking each in terms of who gave the best value for money. The Sunday Telegraph reported his attendance rate at the House of Commons as 87 per cent in the year 2007-2008, during which time he had spoken at 225 debates and tabled 197 written questions.
“It’s nice to be named as one of the good guys,” said Taylor, the MP for Leicestershire North West. His expenses for the year were £154,277. Seventy-five per cent of this sum was for his staff and office. “Classifying everything as expenses can be misleading,” Taylor said. “This includes providing offices in Coalville and Westminster and employing staff to help me to run them. I simply couldn’t cope single-handedly with the growing and massive workload of casework, correspondence and campaigns.”
Yet, within a month Taylor was apologising to his constituents for displaying a “lack of judgment” over claims between 2004 and 2008 for a second home. These included £995 for a chair (officials deemed the original claim of £1,500 too expensive). Taylor admitted that a claim of £347 for a footstool — also deemed extravagant — had been an error of judgment. However, he said that the principal share of the £78,762 in claims he had made over four years was for mortgage interest repayments, utility bills and council tax.
Parliamentary officials had refused to pay £883 for removal fees when he sold his one-bedroom flat in Lambeth for a two-bedroom flat nearer Westminster. When it emerged that one of Taylor’s daughters had rented a room in the flat for £250 a month, he admitted that the sum was below the going rate, but that parliamentary officials had informed him that it was not uncommon for family members to share the accommodation of MPs.
“I’d like to think I have been a hard-working and open MP during my 12 years as representative for North West Leicestershire and I deeply regret if some people will now think differently of me,” he said. “This has rested heavily on my conscience,” he declared as he went into the details of his second-home expenses.Taylor paid back £8,003 and promised to return more before standing down at the next general election.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6968988.ece

Letters:

Guardian:

Mark Lynas’s article (How do I know China wrecked climate deal? I was in the room, 23 December) contrasted vividly with the views on the opposite page from experts. In my Council of Europe role, I held talks in Washington and Beijing, speaking to Premier Wen the day after his discussions with Obama, asking him to heed Gordon Brown’s call to attend Copenhagen. All parties were disappointed there wasn’t a legal agreement. But there wasn’t one at Kyoto either.
However, Lynas’s comments will sour future COP discussions to implement the necessary measures to limit the increase in global temperature to 2C. We require a more objective assessment of the Copenhagen accord, especially the relationship between the world’s two major polluters – China and the US.
At Copenhagen the US climate change special envoy Todd Stern said emissions weren’t about “morality or politics”, they were “just maths”, with China projected to emit 60% more CO2 than the US by 2030. But Stern ignored the more transparent measure of pollution per capita; the US emits 20 tonnes per person every year, compared to China’s six tonnes.
President Obama’s Copenhagen speech was also clearly critical of China. Moreover, he described a period of “two decades of talking and no action”. That might have been true in America, which refused to sign up to Kyoto, but not in the case of China or Europe, which followed a lot of that protocol’s policies. The challenge for all parties is now to stop pointing fingers and focus on turning the accord at Bonn and Mexico into the global climate change agreement we desperately need.
John Prescott
Council of Europe climate change rapporteur
•  The dynamics of the select group of countries negotiating the Copenhagen accord is only part of the story. I was in the G77 plus China group meeting, advising a delegation, of which more than half the 120 countries complained that they had not seen any text from this group. We left to attend the plenary to obtain the text, only to see Obama on the TV screens outside the room telling us that the deal was done. People were astonished and furious. The Danish failure to explain the process of making decisions and Obama’s press conference did untold damage to future negotiations. It wasn’t all China’s fault. The test of success of the accord and any future treaty is simple. Solving climate change requires keeping fossil carbon out of the atmosphere. With current technology that means keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Will the Copenhagen accord dissuade anyone from investing in developing a new oilfield or coal mine? No. What should properly be called the Copenhagen discord was a failure.
Dr Simon Lewis
Earth and Biosphere Institute, University of Leeds
•  In the west we have grown familiar with the idea that the Bible has provided the pretext for humans to exploit resources at the expense of all other life. Lynas’s account of the collapse of the Copenhagen talks shows us that these same attitudes are as entrenched in Chinese culture. This shows that cultural attitudes to the exploitation of resources build upon a more fundamental truth about humankind than the religious and philosophical systems that codified them.
Considering our species from an ecological perspective shows that humans have prospered on the planet because they are a mammalian weed forever invading and changing habitats before moving on to exploit new resources. Cultural structures are a thin veneer upon this ecological truth. Although this truth is uncomfortable, its recognition will be necessary before we can find ways to live within the bounds of finite planetary resources and maintain the ecological systems that support us.
The undignified and unproductive politics that Copenhagen exemplified is fundamentally flawed, since we were unable to bring to it a simple recognition of the ecological nature of humankind. Let’s make 2010 the year when humans get real about their common – and rather frightening – ecological nature and not hide from this behind the divisions wrought by religious and political systems.
Professor Graham Martin
University of Birmingham
•  Mark Lynas seems to skim over a fundamental issue: justice. He points out that China’s massive growth depends on cheap coal, but fails to note that other nations have depended on coal to achieve huge global power. The UK used coal to help it dominate the world, and its current wealth is due to this. With no real reparations available, it is not difficult to understand why China is scared that a climate deal will prevent it from growing to be in the UK’s situation. The problem is more with the concept of unlimited economic growth. This and environmental sustainability cannot go hand in hand. To find these kinds of critiques you have to look outside the Bella Centre, at the protesters in the streets. It seems once again these views are not being heard.
Guy Mitchell
Leeds
• George Monbiot (Comment, 22 December) suggests millions of “good, liberal … people” should have taken to the streets over Copenhagen. Why? In the hope that this would change the minds of the politicians? Why not do it the simpler way and change the politicians? For those who say “it won’t make a difference” to join a political party, why might they suppose taking part in some street theatre will do more? The number of people actively involved in our political parties is tiny. This benefits the industry-funded right. In many places the right wins by default because there are not enough decent liberal people knocking on doors and distributing the literature putting the other side, or choosing decent candidates who understand global warming and other such issues, or being such candidates.
Matthew Huntbach
London

Recent events in the Channel tunnel reflect very badly on many parties (Report, 21 December). Surely Eurostar could have learned from a similar occurrence in 2003 when a train broke down in the tunnel? It appears not. Worse still was the time that Eurotunnel took to evacuate the passengers. A reported 17 hours, with no light, food, water or explanation is hardly the type of response that customers find acceptable. Trains are supposed to be able to pull each other out of the tunnel, and there are rescue diesel locomotives at each end. So why was a rescue diesel seen hooked up to a Eurostar train at St Pancras? Why did it not take the Eurostar to Ashford, where passengers could have taken another train to London while the diesel went back for another Eurostar? One wonders who, if anyone, was in charge?
Eurotunnel is required to have a rescue plan approved by the intergovernmental commission and its safety authority. These bodies should undertake an urgent investigation as to why the rescue procedures went so wrong, and ensure that such a long rescue period never happens again.
As for Eurostar, the damage to the company’s reputation caused not only by its inability to deal with the wrong kind of snow but its appalling communications failures with passengers, will haunt it for years. Ironically, from next year, passenger services become open to any operators; let us hope that others come and try, using trains that work.
Tony Berkeley
Lab, House of Lords

I note with interest that the European court of human rights has ruled against politicians being forced to declare allegiance to a particular ethnic group in order to stand for parliament (Bosnia’s bar on minorities in parliament ruled illegal, 23 December). I wonder what view the court would take on the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which gives greater voting rights in the assembly to those who designate themselves as either unionist or nationalist, as opposed to those who seek to build a united community.
David Ford MLA
Leader, Alliance party, Stormont
• Jill Morley suggests moving Christmas celebrations to the summer solstice (Letters, 24 December). The Persian new year and birth date of Zarathushtra has been celebrated by the Zoroastrians on 21 March, the spring equinox, for over three millennia. Since Christianity has borrowed heavily from the ideas of Zarathushtra, taking on one more wouldn’t be much of a problem.
DR Sethna
Loughborough, Leicestershire
• So archaeologists have found a grotto in Nazareth that was used by Jews to hide from Roman soldiers (Report, 22 December). The crucial question is whether it was used by the People’s Liberation Front of Judea or the Judean People’s Front.
Ivor Morgan
Lincoln
• I was intrigued by the information in your front page story (Marriage is becoming preserve of middle classes, Tories claim, 23 December) that 480,285 people were married in 1972. I am surprised that marriages involving odd numbers of people were permitted as early as this. The 70s were obviously more progressive than most people recall.
Simon Dennis
London
• Have the Italians lost all sense of what is fitting? Surely it would make more sense to throw a model cathedral at the Pope and for a woman to jump on to Silvio Berlusconi (Report, 14 December)?
Steven Wroe
Huddersfield
• After the shoe bomber, we all had to take off our shoes at airport security. After the underwear bomber will we have to take off our underwear?
Owen Wells
Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Barry Sheerman has got the wrong end of the stick over the appointment of the chair of Ofqual (MP accuses Balls of ignoring vetting rules, 19 December). I told parliament on 24 March that there would not be a pre-appointment hearing for Kathleen Tattersall – but that there would be for new candidates for that post in future. The then schools minister Jim Knight also made this clear in a letter to Barry on 12 February. This was because Kathleen had already been in post since April 2008. She was appointed following the normal public appointments process and before the pre-appointment hearings by select committees had been introduced. Not having a pre-appointment hearing when she was already in post seemed the right decision.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP

I was interested to read Martin O’Neill’s comments on Mark Hughes’s recent dismissal after just 18 months as manager of Manchester City: “In any other industry, you would be given the time to do the job, you really would. But football is not like any other industry” (O’Neill says City’s dismissal of Hughes was crazy, Sport, 23 December).
It is interesting to note that a recent report by Hoggett-Bowers into the role of NHS CEOs indicated that they “have a shorter shelf life than Premiership football managers”. In the same report David Nicholson (the NHS chief executive) is quoted as saying: “We find it very difficult to recruit people who want to be chief executives – the average time they spend in post is just 700 days”.
Having been an NHS chief executive (CE) myself I did get to know some of the local Premiership managers quite well, but apart from our shared fragility in office I saw little in common between our jobs. Perhaps I should reassess this in the light of the comments of Gary Cook, CE of Manchester City, earlier this week when he referred to targets, trajectories and scenario planning for the club – language that is daily currency for NHS CEs. At the same time NHS hospital trusts are now participating in league tables – although not yet in four divisions.
I doubt whether it is unique to football management for successor CEs/managers to be lined up while the current incumbents are still in post – while the ethics may be debatable, organisations in all sectors want to ensure continuity of leadership wherever possible.
David Whitney
Hathersage, Derbyshire

The Guardian has recently reported a number of cases of photographers being harassed by the police under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Report, 12 December). It seems to be catching on.
On a train between York and Sheffield last week an announcement warned that taking photographs contravened a certain bylaw. I sought out the “train manager” and asked what the bylaw was. The gist of his answer was, “Take no notice, I made it all up. A woman came to me complaining that someone in her carriage was taking photographs of people, including children, and so I made the announcement.”
The trouble is that an atmosphere is being created. The woman in the ticket office at my destination, where I asked for a comment form, said she thought it was illegal to take photographs on a train. The man across the aisle from me on the train wasn’t surprised at the announcement: “That’s the EU for you,” he said.
Andrew Hornung
Church Enstone, Oxfordshire

Independent:

With 2009 approaching its end, it seems appropriate to look back at the amazing abundance of anniversaries this year. Five centuries ago (1509), Henry VIII became king. And it is two and a half centuries since Kew Gardens began, and the births of William Wilberforce, who ended the British slave trade, and Robert Burns whose love was “like a red, red rose”.
Two centuries back (1809), another poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was born; two statesmen, W E Gladstone and Abraham Lincoln and, of course, Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species was published a century and a half ago.
On the high street, Sainsbury’s celebrates 140 years and Marks & Spencer 125. Sadly, Woolworths closed 100 years after the opening of its first British store in Liverpool. One hundred and twenty years ago, two men were born whose personas included black moustaches: Charlie Chaplin and Hitler. It is 90 years since the Treaty of Versailles was signed, 70 since the Second World War began and 65 since D-Day was launched.
This year is the centenary of Louis Bleriot’s first aeroplane flight across the Channel and 40 years since man landed on the moon. Sixty years ago, legal aid began; George Orwell’s last book, 1984, was published and (of no relevance except to me and close family) I was born.
Communism was established in China and Cuba 60 and 50 years ago respectively. Fifty years ago, music legend Buddy Holly died in a plane crash and 40 years back the Beatles played their last concert on a blustery rooftop in central London.
Thirty years ago, Britain’s first woman Prime Minister was elected, and it is 20 years since Tiananmen Square and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1992, Francis Fukuyama wrote his book, The End of History and the Last Man. But history still has stings in its tail.
Andrew Fuller
London SE12
Our future must lie in renewables
Although the failure at Copenhagen may have raised questions about nuclear power (“Low carbon price threatens investment crucial to meet UK green goals”, 22 December), there is huge potential in renewables.
Research reviewed in the November issue of Scientific American shows renewables can meet 100 per cent of the world’s energy needs (not just electricity) and that it is technically feasible to do it by 2030. This is in line with other reports showing how to decarbonise the world’s economies via renewables and improvements in efficiency.
For example, the US National Academy of Sciences reported this year that wind power could supply more than 40 times present worldwide consumption of electricity and more than five times total global use of energy in all forms.
Another report, from the European Environment Agency, shows that the “economically competitive potential” of wind-power in Europe is three times projected demand for electricity in 2020 and seven times projected demand in 2030. Offshore wind-power alone could meet between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of projected European demand for electricity in 2020, and about 80 per cent of projected demand in 2030.
A report from the Tyndall Centre shows that photovoltaics could generate about 266 TWh in the UK, 66 per cent of the UK’s present electricity demand. The supposed problem of variability in wind-power is much less of an issue than is sometimes suggested. There is a range of techniques available for matching variable supplies with constantly varying demands.
A recent report, Nuclear Subsidies, from the Energy Fair group, shows how the real cost of nuclear power is disguised by several subsidies. Without those subsidies, nuclear power would not begin to compete with renewables, regardless of the price of CO2 emissions.
Dr Gerry Wolff
Energy Fair, Menai Bridge, Anglesey
I am troubled by apocalyptic visions as a result of our inability to deal collectively with climate change, culminating in the tragic failure at Copenhagen. What has become abundantly clear is that the human instinct of self-interest transcends reason. And that law-of-the-jungle mentality will ultimately lead to our extinction.
The apocalyptic visions to which I refer are not those related to the terrifying physical effects of global warming, floods, famines, storms, droughts. These will all come in time but probably long after our pitiful, shameful generation has been and gone. Instead, I refer to the equally terrifying changes that will be imposed on us far sooner.
Sooner or later, the truth, scale and severity of the climate chaos that will be unleashed on us will be irrefutable. It will by then be too late to avoid although, nevertheless, we will try; but the magnitude of the actions we would need to take will be too great to be left to nations and individuals. So they will be imposed on us.
We will have failed to exercise our freedoms and liberties with responsibility, and so we will have them removed. Since it is our rapacious demand for energy and food that drives the whole mess then all our activity that fuels that demand will be strictly limited by the state. Worse still, the states themselves will have their oversight and enforcement policies monitored by global military powers.
Of course, it will not work, and there will be mass population migrations and wars before the planet takes its ultimate revenge on our profligacy. Most people can envision those developments but do they also see the inevitable Orwellian state that will be with us far earlier?
Fraser Devlin
London SE15
If China, the US and others are unwilling to make the necessary commitments to help reduce global warming, then those who are willing to make the sacrifices should impose a carbon duty on all imports from China, US etc.
This tax could be given to those developing countries most at risk from the effects of global warming.
John Blenkinsopp
Sheffield
How to cut down the NHS legal bill
The massive legal bills incurred by the NHS in medical negligence claims reveal only part of the story; the final cost is much higher (“Scandal of lawyers’ NHS payout bills”, 15 December).
The NHS is clearly intent on fighting all negligence claims, irrespective of their merits. Not only does this result in colossal legal bills for the taxpayer, but it also forces the victims of medical negligence to go through the additional trauma of court action. This must deter many genuine claims, particularly since not all of the victims will be eligible for legal aid.
There are two alternative approaches that would offer swifter justice at a fraction of the cost. One is to establish an independent ombudsman to adjudicate, styled along the lines of the financial services ombudsman scheme.
The other is to set up a mediation scheme, following the Acas model to encourage settlement before cases reach the tribunal stage.
Nigel Wilkins
London SW7
Morally unfair way to aid recovery
Personally, I don’t want to learn from the Irish government (Hamish McRae, 16 December). Hacking huge chunks out of people’s income seems an odd way to fuel recovery. Then there is the moral unfairness of the whole thing.
Why should the people who did the least to cause the crisis pay the greatest price? Here, some cuts are obvious: Trident, pointless imperialist adventures to curry favour with US hawks, failed computer systems.
That gets us on our way to the first £100bn and gives our foreign policy a more modest moral compass. Then we could rebalance the Sheriff-of-Nottingham tax system with a little Robin-Hood redistribution.
Finally, am I naive to ask why the banks don’t repay some of the cash Gordon took from my pocket without a vote? Or isn’t that the sort of question I am meant to ask?
Alan Gibbons
Liverpool
If cheques go, then our society suffers
I have written 14 cheques over five months in circumstances where I could probably have paid by card (letters, 26 December). But, in the same period, I also wrote 10 cheques to payees who could not possibly accepted payment by card, to clubs, small charities and the like.
There are thousands of these small groups, some with local membership and support and others countrywide. These little community-interest groups are part of what makes us Britain, and if they are damaged the whole of our society is damaged.
Are we to decline into a soulless corporate state, in which the only recognised use of money is for making purchases from big businesses? Or are we destined to become a cash economy, in which people have to risk carrying large sums, and tax evasion is facilitated? The banks should think again about their social responsibility.
Adrian West
London N21
My wallet, containing my credit cards and cash/debit card, was stolen on 10 December. Stopping the cards and ordering replacements was easy because all are registered with a card protection scheme.
My replacement Egg card arrived on 14 December, my replacement Amex card on 16 December and even my replacement senior railcard on 17 December, but I am still waiting for a replacement cash/debit card from my bank.
Because I have no cash/debit card I can no longer use online banking, so I had to send a cheque to EDF, and had to go with chequebook and passport to my bank for cash. What emergency arrangements do banks intend to put in place when they withdraw cheques?
Rita Hale
London N1
Who did what and when for Dr Who
Golly, Pandora must be a young whippersnapper if she thinks Russell T Davies was the creator of Dr Who (24 December).
Admittedly, he breathed new life into the adventures of the eponymous Time Lord but, putting aside the presumption that the Doctor is the progeny of a mummy and daddy Time Lord on the planet Gallifrey, he was first brought to our attention in 1963 by several people at the BBC, including head of drama Sydney Newman, head of script department Donald Wilson, writers C E Webber and Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and producer Verity Lambert.
Ironically, 1963 was the year Russell T Davies was born.
Michael O’Hare
Northwood, Middlesex
Quick converts
Your reporter writes, “… the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that children were forced to grow up too quickly in his Christmas sermon” (26 December). Whatever he was preaching must have been strong stuff.
Ray Noyes
Cardiff
Frank failures
Why all the fuss about the coming increase in postage stamps? I have sufficient stamps from my incoming post to last until June. This year, at least 45 per cent of all envelopes received have not been franked and the stamps can be re-used. I have had 100-plus letters and cards in the past three weeks and more than 45 have unmarked stamps. This equates to £17 or £18 lost to the Post Office. Multiply by, say, 800,000 to one million households and the PO has lost about £18m. What a way to run a business.
John Sharkey
Stafford
Face-off with the law
There has been a lot of talk about the wearing of the burqa in this country. But, since it is not required by religion, and is only a personal preference, how would it be if all of us were to hide our faces? Since it appears not to be illegal, it seems possible for every man, woman, youth, yob or criminal to walk the streets legally masked. Could this be stopped by police because these new wearers are not Muslim? Would that mean one section of society being given preferential treatment over another?
J H Moffatt
Bredbury, Cheshire
Centre point
Ian Burrell writes (14 December) that Notting Hill is the “epicentre” of trendy London eating. So, all those trendy eaters are scoffing away underground, maybe at the junction of the Central and Circle lines? The word “epicentre” has a precise meaning: the point or small area directly above the focus of an earthquake or tremor. It is not just a longer way of saying “centre”. Is the old trade of sub-editor now as extinct as those of the linotype operator and the tea-lady?
C Sladen
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Shining example
Your correspondents Brian Lile and Doug Meredith (letters, 22 and 24 December), with their ears tuned to pick up broadcast items which combine the meteorological with the tautological, would have appreciated the BBC weather forecaster who promised “a good deal of sunshine during daylight hours”.
ALAN BUNTING
Harpenden, Hertfordshire

Times:

Sir, Your report (Dec 24) on the outcry that the Vatican is a step closer to moving the wartime Pope, Pius XII, to sainthood omitted to mention the meeting between the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Sir D’Arcy Osborne, and the Pope on October 18, 1943, when the Pope told him he had no reason to complain about the Nazi commander in Rome.
Only two days earlier, the brutal Nazi round-up of Jews in Rome began. On that day alone more than 1,000 Jewish men, women and children were forcibly removed from their homes, herded on to trucks and sent to Auschwitz.
No reason to complain? Many non-Jewish Italians, without the protection of Papal diplomatic immunity, did more than complain. They risked their lives (some paid with their lives) to hide Jews during the nine months of Nazi occupation of Rome. There are several stories of heroism, including that of the Italian police chief who protected a group of Jews from the Gestapo who were searching for them. Also the non-Jewish nursing sister who hid several other Jews in a hospital.
The mother of my Italian companion tells of being hidden, along with her sister, by nuns in a convent who, fortunately, did not wait to be led by example. One can imagine Sir D’Arcy’s perplexity, perhaps disgust, at the Pope’s comments in the light of what was visible to all in Rome at the time.
Stephen Burstin
Southend-on-Sea, Essex

Lester May wrote:
It does seem that the Vatican is picking an odd one to be a saint.

There is too much doubt and any imprimatur from Rome about this Pope will just throw into doubt even more their other thoughts on sainthood.

Surely saintehood is best kept for the clearly goodly and Godly?

Sir, Normally when Lord Mandelson says two plus two equals four, I immediately reach for the calculator, but in his recent statement regarding higher education in England he has a valid point (report, Dec 23, and letters, Dec 26).
When I retired early I found that I needed to keep my brain occupied, so at the tender age of 50 I embarked on an undergraduate course at a well-known Russell Group university. In the first week the freshers were addressed by the vice-chancellor, who began by telling us: “Of course your first year does not count towards your final degree.” This was a shock. Coming out of the hall many students were muttering why they had to take on loans and pay course tuition fees for that year when it would not be counting for anything.
The actual teaching was very good, as were the tutorials, but, and it is a big but, the actual weeks spent at university for the academic year totalled just over 20. I found the pressure of work was negligible. Even more annoying was the work ethic, which was totally lacking in many students throughout the degree course.
Deadlines were never strictly enforced. A student just had to complain that the cat had died to be given extension after extension.
Two-year courses should be implemented as soon as possible. The commonly heard bleat that students will not get the full university experience is nonsense in today’s financial climate. Two years’ intensive study with 33 per cent less fees and loans will enable more students of modest means to aim at higher education.
P. Chesters
Wallasey, Wirral
Sir, Recently the University of Leeds sociology department advertised for a research officer to study “The rise and regulation of lap dancing and the place of sexual labour and consumption in the night time economy” at a salary of between £29,704 and £31,513.
Not all research is of equal value and not all research is of any value.
Nick Winstone-Cooper
Bridgend, South Wales

Redmond McDonagh wrote:
Universities exist primarily to provide employment opportunities for academics.

Everything falls neatly into place, once this simple fact is understood.
December 28, 2009 1:28 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (1)
Report Abuse
Permalink

stanley cohen wrote:
Does this equal the study course in Klingon language at Southampton University or is that of greater use?

Sir, Allow the words of a respected African leader to complete those of Matthew Parris’s Opinion (Dec 19) and subsequent letters (Dec 21, 22 and 24). On May 1, 1961, Julius Nyerere, PM of newly independent Tanganyika, sent a detailed two-page letter to British administrators, from which I quote:
“Some administrative officers have decided to leave, and to them I would say thank you for what you have done . . . my Government, and therefore the great bulk of the people, are really in need of your help; and we will be for a long time to come . . . in a continent where so much ill-feeling and unhappiness abound . . . Could you feel happy if you had left us . . . if we then proceeded to make a mess of our trust here because we had not enough British administrators to help us?”
How many African countries have, post-independence, “made a mess”, with returns to the corruption, cruelty and violent tribalism that those earlier Britsh administrators had prevented?
Geoffrey Mills
Andover, Hants

Sir, I must confess to disappointment in the analysis of my recent sermon. Julian Baggini demonstrates a lack of awareness of the actualité of people’s lives on ordinary housing estates throughout the land if he imagines that their dire circumstances do not meet the criteria necessary for the breakdown of moral values (“Sorry, Father, thou still shalt not steal”, Opinion, Dec 23).
Nowhere does he deal with the brutal question: what should we advise people to do when all the legal, morally and socially acceptable options have been shut down to them? It is such a difficult question that we simply ignore it.
Ruth Gledhill’s regurgitation of biblical proof texts had all the finesse of a street preacher (“What about not coveting your neighbour’s goods?”, Commentary, Dec 22 ). Where was the discussion of Ambrose, Chrysostom and Aquinas, foundational Christian thinkers who grappled hard with the social consequences of Christianity’s failure to respond to Jesus’s injunction in Matthew XIX:21?
The conclusions of my sermon were not remotely original, or even derivative, but just plain copied.
Father Tim Jones
The parishes of St Lawrence and St Hilda
York

Sir, I wish to object strongly to the gross calumny from your anonymous correspondent of December 24, 1856, insulting the crossbreed of a spaniel and a poodle as “good for nought” (“House Dogs”, Letters from the Archive, Dec 24 ).
I am writing on behalf of Humphrey who is eight months old and combines the intelligence of an English dog with the savoir-faire of a French one — and his breed now proudly goes under the name of cockapoo.
I suppose it’s too late to expect an apology.
James Leek
London SW19

Sir, Hopefully the good advice from 1856 remains the same. My Dandie Dinmont sleeps in the bedroom and is on guard duty 24 hours a day (his choice). His bark is both loud and sustained.
Would he deter today’s breed of intruder? I would prefer not to find out.
J. Marber
Richmond-upon-Thames

Sir, In justifying the decision to delay the giving of evidence to the Iraq inquiry by Gordon Brown and other government ministers until after the next general election, Sir John Chilcot has stated that the hearings should not be used for political advantage (report, Dec 24 ).
In making this decision Sir John has delivered significant political advantage to Labour and denied the British electorate the information needed to fully hold the Government accountable at the election.
Robert Cleave
Bramcote, Notts

Telegraph:

SIR – I thank you and your readers for the most extraordinary response to Thomas Harding’s report (December 14) about our “wristband appeal”.
My welfare officer back in Aldershot has reported that he returned to his office last week to be confronted by a huge postbag which, though he has not yet been able to sort it all, contained cheques from your readers to the value of more than £10,000.
 
It is immensely humbling to know that so many people care to such a great degree about the young men and women who are fighting to bring security to Helmand.
The money donated will be used carefully for the benefit of our soldiers and their families, both now and in the years to come.
Military funerals are paid for by the Ministry of Defence, but money raised through the regimental welfare fund will be put towards additional costs such as flowers, newspaper announcements and wakes.
A good regiment is a family and cares for its own. We have been overwhelmed by the generosity your readers have shown and, on behalf of the soldiers of this battalion, I would like to offer our thanks and, from afar, our very best wishes for a happy Christmas season.
Lieutenant Colonel Toby Gray
1st Bn Coldstream Guards
Helmand, Afghanistan
Airline security
SIR – If airports used profiling techniques and spent less time stripping pensioners and children to their underpants in an attempt not to offend the very people who present the highest risk, we could get on a plane more quickly and safely.
Stuart Seear
Newlyn, Cornwall
SIR – In view of the attempted destruction of a passenger aircraft over Detroit, do the US and British governments still believe that sending soldiers to Afghanistan is the best way to combat terrorism? If so, when are they going to send soldiers to Yemen?
J.F.F. Sharland
Stannington, Northumberland
Telling exchange
SIR – On a recent business trip to Taiwan, we realised we needed to change some money, so we went into a bank with two crisp £20 notes, only to be told: “We only change US dollars and strong currencies.”
Gordon Brown and his colleagues really do have a lot to answer for.
Anthony Farrar
Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex
Much improved hedges
SIR – How old, I wonder, is Jeff Martin (Letters, December 24), who criticises current farm practices on hedging.
In the 1950s, in many intensively farmed areas of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, hedges were grubbed out to save on labour. Thousands of acres were exposed, and this, apart from destroying habitats, allowed serious wind erosion in times of drought.
The mechanical hedge-cutter, hated by some, has changed all that, and good thick hedges have been re-established in most of these areas. The overall situation for wildlife has improved enormously.
Jeffrey Bowles
Mellington Hall Park, Powys
Coffee in the frying pan
SIR – My wise old African cook, Herman, would be astounded to learn that people now spend £325 on a machine to roast coffee (report, December 26).
Herman would smear a frying pan with oil, cover with beans to a depth of half an inch, and stir slowly until roasted.
This I still do, although usually without the hymns that he sang simultaneously.
Susan Harrison
Mousehole, Cornwall
What hast thou done?
SIR – With regard to your report on old phrase books (December 26), some years ago I bought an English-Russian conversation guide from a French monastery bookshop.
I have never needed to say, “Hast thou been unfaithful?” in Russian, but should the need arise I am well prepared.
Edward Spurrier
Stamford, Lincolnshire
SIR – The EUP French and English Dictionary, given to me at school, has 20 pages of phrases, among which are: “The poor wretch threw himself out of the window”; “It is better to die than to live without honour”; “These silk stockings cost her a mint of money.”
Robert Darlaston
Goostrey, Cheshire
SIR – My 1994 Estonian phrase book tells me how to say in Estonian: “I would like a large-scale map of the Isle of Wight.”
Daron Gunson
Bures, Essex
The £6 million cost of protecting Tony Blair
SIR – Isn’t it galling to know that an ex-premier holding no UK office costs Britain £6 million a year (report, December 26) just for protection? Tony Blair’s security costs Britons 10 pence per head. We were recently told that the cost of the Queen and all the Royal Family works out at 69 pence per head. Much of that expenditure is unavoidable – I’d point out to republican critics – regardless of the nature of the head of state we have.
Simon Coulter
Benalmadena, Malaga, Spain
SIR – If Mr Blair earns £18 million over two and a half years, that should bring in around £3 million a year in tax, even before the 50p tax rate comes in.
The £6 million a year on police wages will yield a further £2 million a year. So we “only” pay £1 million a year on his protection.
To see Mr Blair out of the country for substantial portions of the year, this seems exceptional value for money.
Mark Sinclair
Holme-upon-Spalding-Moor, North Yorkshire
The fox as prey to political wrangling
SIR – Hilary Benn is to campaign against Conservative proposals for a free vote on repeal of the hunting ban (report, December 26).
As Secretary of State at Defra, Mr Benn is said to base his policy on the pre-ban report produced by Lord Burns’s committee. It accepted that the fox population should be controlled, and suggested that shooting by night was the most effective method.
Lord Burns has said subsequently that control by hunting with hounds “does not equate with cruelty”. Further research commissioned by the all-party Parliamentary Middle Way Group draws attention to the difference between control of the fox population (which sees indiscriminate culling by shooting) and wildlife management (the discriminatory search and dispatch of old, sick and injured animals by scenting hounds).
For the fox to become once again a political animal, prey to any struggle for electoral advantage, is irrelevant to the realities of rural life. Mr Benn should think again before treading the path that has already led to the expenditure of 700 hours of parliamentary time on an issue that produced divisive yet ineffective legislation, leading to a waste of money and effort by the police and the courts.
Colonel J.L. Parkes
Sherborne, Dorset

Irish Times:

Unequal access to health care
Madam, – Equity is one of our core health system principles and means that care is provided on the basis of need and not on ability to pay. In 2004, a study by the Health Equity Research Group of the OECD found access to hospital care in Ireland was one of the most inequitable in the OECD. The same research found parallel private health insurance (PHI) was a major contributor to this inequity.
Around 50 per cent of the population, mainly higher and higher middle-income individuals purchase private health insurance.
According to the November OECD economic outlook for Ireland and the 2009 Commission on Taxation report, the Government spent nearly €500 million subsidising private health insurance purchase and medical expenses, commonly referred to as government tax expenditure (or tax relief for purchasers of private health insurance), but in reality a covert tax on all taxpayers. The uninsured population are helping higher-income people to pay for private health insurance.
The OECD and the commission have recommended modification of the tax relief on insurance premiums and health expenses. None the less, they did not consider the impact of such relief on equity in health care, despite indicating that the main reason for limiting this type of government expenditure in taxation terms is its fundamentally inequitable impact on taxpayers.
I wonder if the commission had been aware of the above-mentioned health research, would it not have recommended the full abolition of tax relief on private health insurance?
Given that equity is a core government health care principle, a Dáil Éireann truly concerned with its own health principles should have abolished this expenditure.
It would be more equitable and efficient if this expenditure were used on developing intensive care facilities in Crumlin Children’s Hospital, on removal of the prescription charge and reducing the need for budget cuts scheduled for public hospitals and GP services next year.
A reduction or abolition of health insurance subsidisation would represent a relatively small income burden for higher income categories of employees in the private and public sector, would not impact seriously on private health insurance purchase and could be more efficiently and equitably spent protecting frontline GP and public hospital services.
Neither the Government nor Opposition has indicated any intention to follow the recommendations from the OECD or Commission on Taxation, and the Government has now introduced a prescription charge for medical card holders, individuals on the lowest incomes and in the worst health. These same individuals are now being asked to contribute another €25 million to Government coffers through this inequitable user charge.
At some point, a genuinely principled government will have to address the inequity in access to health care generated by the financing system. Sadly, we must not hold our breaths for the current Dáil to address this issue. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN BARTON,
Ballinasloe,
Co Galway.
Rise in teenage pregancies
Madam,   – As reported by Mark Hennessy (Opinion, December 17th) the number of pregnancies in England and Wales, already high, is rising again.   The answer according to Southwark and Lambeth boroughs in London is to give contraceptive pills to 16-year-old girls and we now have the Law Reform Commission recommending that these pills should be available to 16-year-olds here (Front page, December 22nd).
This is despite the well-documented knowledge that this will have the same results as occurred in Britain.   As Dr John Lalor in a letter to The Irish Times (March 29th, 2007) stated: “For 30 years I have worked as a GP in a society where the number of teenage pregnancies, the number of sexually transmitted diseases and the number of single mothers have increased exponentially.   Free contraception, early sexual education and free health care have been available.  My view, extraordinarily is that the British model is an absolute failure”.
Do we really wish to follow the British model, already demonstrated to have been a disaster, or will we follow the path of encouraging responsible behaviour leading to healthy relationships?
It should not be overlooked that the policies adopted in Britain are fuelled by the vast profits accruing from the sale of contraceptives and the carrying out of abortions. – Yours, etc,
MARY STEWART,
Ardeskin,
Donegal.
Religious influence in schools
Madam, – Fintan O’Toole makes the wholly unacceptable charge (Opinion, December 22nd) that Bishop Leo O’Reilly made dishonest claims in his article concerning Catholic schools on December 19th.
The bishop did nothing of the sort. He said that schools that exclude religious instruction are not neutral in their philosophy of life. They too espouse an ethos of their own. He went on to welcome the provision of such schools as providing for diversity of choice in the Irish education system.
Mr O’Toole bases his accusation of dishonesty on the clearly fallacious claim that “no one is talking about schools that exclude religious instruction”. Maybe Mr O’Toole has no interest in such schools but he shouldn’t equate himself with everyone, as he clearly doesn’t speak for parents who already send their children to such schools or parents who desire such schools for their children. Further, in recent weeks numerous correspondents with The Irish Times and in other media (in the Letters pages, online and in opinion pieces) have argued strongly for an end to Catholic patronage and the removal of religious instruction, images and practices from our schools.
How could Bishop O’Reilly deal with the future of patronage in Irish schools without addressing this issue? Rather than being dishonest, he was dealing fairly and openly with a complex situation. – Yours, etc,
Mgr JIM CASSIN,
Executive Secretary,
Bishops’ Education
Commission,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Climate change – a burning issue
Madam, – Although James Nix (December 19th) says that incinerating waste produces carbon emissions (which is quite correct), he fails to mention that incinerating the waste reduces the amount of waste sitting in landfill sites and produces electricity for us to power our homes. He also fails to mention how recycling produces emissions without producing power. So does he suggest we keep filling the fields with waste and keep burning fossil fuels for our power? – Yours, etc,
DÁIRE O’DRISCOLL,
Rathfarnham Wood,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
ECT without consent
Madam, – I have read and re-read Dr Siobhan Barry’s letter (December 14th).
In her third paragraph, she says “some mental illness requires treatment against the person’s wishes, including prescribed ECT”. She describes this as being a “human right to be given effective treatment” which right is “ethically founded” and which “all doctors are properly ethically required to protect”.
This seems to mean that psychiatrists are acting ethically in prescribing and requiring a person involuntarily to undergo ECT. It further seems to mean that not only are these psychiatrists acting ethically but that they are, in fact, ethically required to do so (ie impose ECT against the person’s wishes in relevant circumstances) in order to “protect and uphold the right to treatment”.
As a psychotherapist, I am required by professional ethics to “respect clients’ rights to self-determination and autonomy”, to “ensure that the client consents to participate at all stages of counselling and respect clients’ right to discontinue at any time”. (Code of Ethics of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy).
If I am reading Dr Barry’s letter accurately, how could two therapeutic professions adhere to such seemingly divergent ethical positions? And what is the legal/constitutional basis for the human right referred to in her letter? – Yours, etc,
IAN WOODS,
Castle Grove,
Swords,
Co Dublin.
Clamping in hospital car parks
Madam, – William Coleman’s dismay at seeing wheel-clampers at work in the car park of his local hospital is understandable. (December 23rd). If any activity is the antithesis of a caring establishment it is this one.
Here in the UK plans are afoot to regulate their activities. There have been many instances where they have been overzealous in immobilising vehicles and demanding excessive charges for their release. It has been reported that motorists who abandoned their cars in a pub car park because of the treacherous weather conditions returned the following morning to find their vehicles clamped.
May I take issue with Mr Coleman when he says that he sees the need for hospital parking charges. It is true that such an exercise generates a considerable sum of money for the health service, but such a practice is anathema to the very principles of caring for the sick in a developed society. It’s a tax on them, nothing more, nothing less.
Most hospitals in Scotland and Wales discontinued such charges recently and in England the health secretary Andy Burnham has promised to phase them out over the next three years. – Yours, etc,
FRANK GREANEY,
Lonsdale Road,
Formby,
Liverpool,
England.
Historic land files for the chop
Madam, – Why is the Property Registration Authority being permitted to casually shred thousands of historic land files (News, December 23rd)? At least the anti-Treaty forces had an excuse when many records were destroyed in the bombing at the Four Courts in 1922. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Public support for sex offender
Madam, – I wish to register my complete abhorrence at the behaviour in the “Listowel” case of some of my fellow Kerrymen.
The great north Kerry writer, John B Keane, demonstrated in his plays the tribal silences and judgments, especially towards women, which ruined so many lives. We, in 21st-century Ireland, had hoped that this sort of gendered judgment was a thing of the past. I grew up a few miles from Listowel and I know it to be a welcoming, warm, friendly place.
Most of its inhabitants, I am sure, stand with me in condemning the behaviour of those ignorant, biased few, who shook the hand of a convicted sex offender and, in the process, judged and demeaned his victim. A man was found guilty of a heinous crime by a jury of his peers, a young woman has been vindicated for her courageous stand; I heartily commend her for her bravery and hope she will be an inspiration to victims of rape or sexual assault to come forward. Too often these women and men remain silent.
We know from studies that a tiny percentage of victims report these crimes and an even smaller percentage proceed to trial. Part of the reason for this is the judgmental attitude towards victims that, unfortunately, remains in many parts of Ireland, rural and urban, and among all classes and genders.
Perhaps the lessons of this case will help us, as a nation, come to terms with our remaining prejudices about sex crimes and to excise them from our national psyche, once and for all. – Yours, etc,
MARY McAULIFFE,
Women’s Studies,
School of Social Justice,
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4
Sharing pain of economic crisis
Madam, – I recently paid €50 for a visit to my GP in order to get an appointment with a medical consultant in Blackrock Clinic for a ten minute visit which cost me €180.
Presently, we are all taking cuts in wages etc. Are these professions excluded from the hardship we are all experiencing? Would they not take a voluntary cut or else could the Minister for Health reduce their fees or put a cap on them?
We must all play a part to alleviate the hardship most of us are experiencing. – Yours, etc,
J MURPHY,
Cork Road,
Youghal,
Co Cork.
Time for the Angelus to go?
Madam, – Robin Bury, the Reform Group (December 12th) claims that the Angelus bell on RTÉ should be removed or replaced.
I, for one, would miss it very much, because it puts my mind into proper perspective after a troublesome or weary day. Prayer, no matter how short, is the most powerful source of energy.
Would the Reform Group not consider removing the violence on numerous television programmes which is ruining the minds of viewers? – Yours, etc,
SHEILA McKENNA,
Ballyroan Park,
Templeogue,
Dublin 16.
Madam, – Robin Bury (December 12th) argued that the Angelus should be removed from the RTÉ schedule. He states that it should be stopped because our State has signed up to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and so should remain neutral in such matters.
In reply, I ask, what about the rights of the majority who believe that is an important and beneficial part of our day and wish it to continue?
The Angelus is simply a pause for prayer and reflection. It is indeed a Catholic prayer but surely people of all religions can use this brief moment to reflect and pray in their own way?
This surely cannot threaten any mature person’s sensibilities.
The idea that we should stop broadcasting it because no other public service broadcaster relays it is a spurious argument.
Why can we not be unique and have the Angelus? We should not follow every trend.
For believers, this minute of calm reflection on the good news of our faith is clearly beneficial, coming as it does before the news – which doesn’t cheer any of us up in these difficult times. – Yours, etc,
JOHN MCCARTHY,
Castlemartyr,
Co Cork.
Madam, – It was refreshing to read Aidan Comerford (December 19th) propose that a minute of silence might follow the Angelus so that non-believers could “remind believers what we think about God”.
Most of the time, atheists in Ireland seem very keen to maintain their dogma that belief that there is no God magically does not amount to a faith proposition.
I for one would welcome another minute of silence on the airwaves during rush hour and would appreciate the clarity brought to public discourse by atheists admitting that they do in fact leap into faith when they state that they believe there is no God. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN HARGADEN,
Rockfield Square,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Abbey moving to the GPO
Madam, – For the next Programme for Government, perhaps Fianna Fáil could publish the list of buildings into which they will not try not to put the Abbey.
Instead, they could offer a list of venues for summer rep such as Mullaghmore, Hill or Tara, Rossport and the like. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CULLINAN,
Essex Quay,
Dublin 8.
On the right track with satnav?
Madam, – Micheal Cullen’s musings on where we would be without satnav (December 23rd) reminded me of several incidents that occurred at the hands of one such device during a three-month posting to Minneapolis.
After three months of right-side driving in the company of Miss Mechanised, insisting in a school-perfectly homogenised, culturally-bastardised way that I should be proceeding to her “highlighted route”, precipice or brick-building not withstanding, and bleating, repeating, entreating, imploring me to turn across three lanes of oncoming traffic, I found myself re-evaluating older ways of navigating. – Yours, etc,
SARAH CLANCY,
Salthill,
Galway.
Corrib gas ‘giveaway’
A chara, – Daniel Sexton’s view that the current oil/gas exploration terms are “quite pragmatic” is untenable (December 16th). We are the only country in the world – with the possible exception of Cameroon – that has proven reserves of natural resources which we continue to give away for a pittance.
Corrib Gas, together with the estimated 10BBOE (billion barrels of oil equivalent) (estimates per Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan’s own department) off our west coast cannot benefit the State under the Burke/Ahern terms because control and management of the reserves is ceded to the oil companies. It is the oil companies that own 100 per cent of the oil/gas on which they pay no royalties, no special taxes and, if they decide to sell us back what once belonged to us they do so at full market value.
It is every country’s sovereign right and duty to use whatever fiscal tools it has at its disposal for purposes of the common good. In that regard, it was, and remains, open to the Minister of Finance to at any time impose the fiscal regime of royalties. The current licensing terms and conditions are governed by fiscal policy; it is a matter of political will to introduce a robust royalty regime. The 10 BBOE reserves off the west coast, using a conservative value of $60 a barrel, are worth €420 BILLION – a royalty regime of 80 per cent, not uncommon in resource rich states, would yield €336 billion to service the current and future needs of this country’s people.
Is Mr Sexton and his ilk of the view that the oil companies’ shareholders are more deserving of this largesse that the citizens of the producing state?
I, along with so many others, have spent the first decade of the 21st century dealing with the proposed imposition of the Corrib Project which, at local level constitutes environmental injury and, at national level is an economic insult. We have been vindicated by An Bord Pleanála’s letter of November 2nd last which stated that the “safest pipeline in the world” is not that safe after all. We have been proven right in our informed concerns regarding health and safety; it is time we were listened to when we outline the national implications of what amounts to the continued giveaway of our last piece of family silver when it’s most needed.
The capture of our natural resources by Shell, Statoil, etc, was enabled by a crew of fools and/or knaves and would have become a fait accompli in 2003 but for the weltanschauung of those who opposed it. – Is mise,
MAURA HARRINGTON,
Spokesperson,
Shell to Sea,
Ballina,
Co Mayo.

Well I must be off

best wishes John

Boxing Day 2009

December 27, 2009 by johnblakey

Boxing Day 2009 28 December 2009

Well thats Christmas Day over with for another year and its back to earth with a bump, tidying up and putting the rubbish in the bin and cleaning. Having tasted the delights of German cat food on Christmas Day the cars are loath to go back to ordinary British cat food, I get the mournful looks the meows but its gone all gone, I am afraid.
A now rare sighting of Apple just as the cats are getting used to his absence, he mounts the stairs to the garage roof and vanishes behind a snow covered plant pot, there is a fierce some yowl, and Apple retreats pressing himself against our window as if he wanted to get in, he looks younger, kittenish somehow, he mush have been beautiful as a kitten. Then he is off, I wonder what could have happened?
Mary spots a Moorhen, strutting up and down in the garden, they are a water bird but we are less than a mile from the lake in Roundhay park, and Canal gardens is nearby, then it is off, I am sorry to have missed seeing that bird.
I am lying on my bed, sorting out my Tony Hancock Mp3 files on my phone they are over a hundred of them all unlabeled I put them into a play list, perhaps when I find out which is which I can rename them. I am wearing my old jumper and very old disreputable trousers, and I have forgotten where I have put my slippers. The door bell goes, ah, I thought the postman was off until Tuesday! I leap out of bed, and run to the front door, mustn’t keep the postman waiting, goodness know what he has brought.
It is not the postman but Joyce from Mary’s book group with her friend Betty, both are exquisitely dressed for the cold weather. In my haste to get to the front door my sock has come off half my foot and my bare heel is freezing on the cold floor, an icy draft from the cold air outside cools it even further. I invite them in, and call Mary and hobble after them, its not easy to pull your socks up in front of such exquisitely dressed guests. They come in and admire Mary’s poetry book and chat about books no they won’t have a cup of tea, how unEnglish, and I manage while sitting down to keep up a lively flow of conversation and surreptitiously pull my sock up, where have I put my slippers?
We all chat for a while and then they take their leave and my defiant sock once again slips half off as I am waving them goodbye on the doorstep.
I heat up the remains of yesterday’s steak and ale pie, put in carrots, fennel and garlic, and we settle down and watch The Pure Hell of St Trinians, http://users.bestweb.net/~foosie/trinian.htm dear Cecil Parker, always looks faintly disreputable, an utter delight. Mary beats me at Scrabble again!

Postxards

Helen Babington Tiger cubs

Helen Babington Tiger cubs

Bamforth ‘Comic’ Series Left hand drive’ Holmfirth Yorkshire, England

Bamforth 'Comic' Series Left hand drive' Holmfirth Yorkshire, England

Allan & Janet Ahlberg, The Jolly Postman book: Everyone loves a letter

Allan & Janet Ahlberg, The Jolly Postman book: Everyone loves a letter

Up a long Clovelly, Bideford, Devon, England

Up a long Clovelly, Bideford, Devon, England

Harold Todd, Robin Hood’s Bay, looking north, Yorkshire England

Harold Todd, Robin Hood's Bay, looking north, Yorkshire England

Obituary: Mike Richey: Expert on astro-navigation

Mike Richey was a wartime naval officer and the founding director of the Royal Institute of Navigation from 1948 to 1983, but his affinity with the sea went deeper than either. He made 13 single-handed crossings of the Atlantic in a 26ft boat, the last at the age of 80, survived two shipwrecks and became a symbol to several generations of solo sailors.
Michael William Richey was born in 1917 in Eastbourne, where his mother had moved to avoid Zeppelins. He spent his childhood in Switzerland and Albania, where his father was Inspector-General of the Royal Gendarmerie. He attended the Benedictine school at Downside Abbey, and planned to enter a monastery, spending a short time among the Trappists on Caldey Island.
However, he had also developed an interest in sculpture and wrote asking for an apprenticeship to the stonecarver and typographer Eric Gill. He served three years at Gill’s farmhouse, Pigott’s, working with a group of talented artists, including David Jones, who became lifelong friends. His particular interest was letter-cutting, and he worked on the new UN building in Geneva, and on the Oxford Playhouse, where the lettering still exists. Indeed in 2008 he was persuaded, despite his lifelong modesty, to come on stage at the theatre’s anniversary celebrations and tell the story.
In 1939 he entered the Navy on the lower deck; serving first in a minesweeper, HMS Goodwill, which was blown up the following year. He accepted a commission and spent the rest of the war at sea in a variety of ships, including one of the Free French Navy and a spell on an armed merchant cruiser in the South Atlantic. Later he wrote: “This is where my taste for astro-navigation began, because there was nothing else to do. I took stars morning, noon and night for about a year.” He became a specialist navigator, whose knowledge was of particular use in the preparations for the Normandy landings.
On his return he was approached to form the Institute of Navigation, which became the Royal Institute in 1972; for 35 years it had in Richey an ideal director. Starting in a single room with capital of £100, it became a body commanding international respect. The need to collate and preserve the knowledge gained during the war in the science of navigation had been recognised by Sir Laurence Kirwan, who lodged the group in the building of the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was the director. Richey, always self-contained and a little monastic, saw in the job a measure of independence and a way to develop his interest in the subject.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6967480.ece

Letters:

Guardian:

In the debate on Copenhagen, we must be realistic about what politicians can achieve. Much of the solution to environmental problems lies with the application of new technology and changing personal behaviour. Politicians can provide a framework, but little progress will be made until individuals start making different decisions.
The media, which are attempting to portray the climate change summit as a failure, carry adverts for cheap flights and vehicles with high emissions. We need fewer of these things and more attractive alternative lifestyles which the high income per capita countries can buy into.
We need to be more imaginative than green taxes and increasing numbers of wind farms. Once that has been achieved, it maybe possible to get legally binding agreements which are acceptable to poor and developing countries.
David Mortimer
Brighton
■ It is right to apportion some blame to China for the failure of Copenhagen. (“China blamed as anger mounts over climate deal”, News). However, the fact is developing countries came to the negotiating table collectively offering deeper carbon cuts than the richest countries. In the words of UN climate chief Yvo de Boer: “You could say that developing countries are more on track to responding to science than the industrialised world.” But the more important question is: where next?
The crash in the carbon price and the weak signal to investors resulting from Copenhagen means the focus must turn to domestic and regional actions to curb emissions. Meeting Europe’s target to generate 20% of its energy from renewables by 2020 will now be critical. Other concrete measures will also be required to ditch unabated coal burning and kick-start the transition to clean energy. Without aviation brought into the deal, limiting the expansion of airports has also become even more important than ever. If the post-Copenhagen talks are to be anything more than quicksand, it will require powerful blocs like Europe to do more than just cast blame.
Joss Garman
Climate Campaign, Greenpeace UK
■ I’m surprised to find myself in agreement with John Prescott – the Copenhagen outcome looks like a major step forward. I find it particularly encouraging that the 2C limit is in the text, with the option of reducing this to 1.5C.
There does appear to be some confusion among those reporting the talks, if not those taking part. You report China’s insistence that a European pledge of 80% emissions reductions be taken out as it would be too severe a target, yet have left a 2C target which may turn out to be much more restrictive and left open the possibility that this be reduced to 1.5C. Many people have declared this to be impossible, which it is, at least to the degree that fuel rationing is impossible.
As a scientist, I know I am not alone in wincing when politicians say “the science is conclusive”: the science justifying substantial action is conclusive, but there is still great uncertainty about the costs of different levels of warming. But now the governments of the world are at least committed to keeping the option of a 1.5C limit open and this has to be a good thing. It will be a major challenge to Europe and North America to come up with energy policies which are consistent with this commitment, but they can hardly refuse to do so after making such a fuss about the accord being too weak.
Martin Juckes
Reading
■ The Observer’s reporting on and analysis of the Copenhagen conference was superb. The star topping off this excellent Christmas tree of work by your team of writers was Riddell’s cartoon. His image should be sent as a new year greetings card to politicians around the world.
Tim Forcer
Southampton

Anthony Seldon (“All that I admired about Tony Blair is being destroyed by his lack of humility”, Comment, last week) criticises Tony Blair for misjudgments in his handling of the Iraq war but does “not believe that he should apologise for the fact of taking the country to war”.
True, apologising would be meaningless, but Mr Blair clearly owes the Chilcot inquiry an explanation of his catastrophic decision to join the US in attacking Iraq. According to the evidence already given to Chilcot, it was a condition of UK participation in the war that it must have the prior approval of the UN Security Council, which Blair manifestly failed to get. The FCO lawyers had warned that attacking Iraq without UN authority would “amount to the crime of aggression” and the lord chancellor warned that the legal justification for war was, at best, shaky.
Two of Blair’s most senior and trusted advisers have told Chilcot that in their view the weapons inspectors should have been given more time before any resort to military action. The military have confirmed that our forces could have disengaged right up to the last moment.
Blair would have had ample justification for holding back. Was it that he feared bitter accusations of cowardice from Bush and the loss of his matinee idol status with American public opinion? The Iraq inquiry, and all of us, including Dr Seldon, are entitled to know why, at the supreme crisis of his political life, our prime minister and a supine cabinet took our country into an illegal, premature, unnecessary and disastrous war when he could so easily have declined to do so.
Brian Barder, HM diplomatic service, 1965-94
London SW18
These vigilantes deserve clemency
Catherine Bennett, commenting on the case of Munir Hussain, whose home and family were attacked and burgled, says she is against “a brutal free for all in which the rule of law counts for nothing”. She opposes “violent freelance retribution” and goes on to endorse Mr Hussain’s imprisonment (“What sort of society praises vigilantes with cricket bats?”, Comment).
The burglars physically attacked Mr Hussain’s wife, sons and daughter. Mr Hussain overreacted. How would Ms Bennett have responded if someone had entered her home and threatened her family?
Shouvik Datta
Orpington, Kent
■ I have known Munir Hussain for 20 years through his work for race relations in High Wycombe and his work in the Asian community. I was a councillor in the ward adjacent to where he and his brother live, and mayor of High Wycombe and chairman of Wycombe district council. I always found him to be a man of honour. What has brought him to his present situation is totally out of keeping. I can only hope he and his brother can receive clemency.
Ted Collins
Marlow, Bucks
Christians didn’t steal from pagans
The notion that the early Christians simply adapted earlier stories about pagan gods to create the stories about Jesus is popular today, but rests upon no good evidence and has been debunked by scholars (“So much for Gospel truths”, Letters). Your correspondent Barry Thorpe unaccountably mentions Mithras. We know virtually nothing about his cult. Most of the material in the Gospels is best understood against a background of Judaism. Unfortunately for those who wish to paint the early Christians as plagiarists, it is hard to see any pagan mythology in there. I agree that it would be good if true religious history were taught in schools; it would protect children from being taken in not only by the myths of religions, but by the myths spread by those who seek to discredit religion even at the expense of truth and integrity.
Jonathan Hill
London SE14
An appeal for the victims of Gaza
One year on from Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government continues to imprison 1.5 million Palestinians and prevent the rebuilding of its shattered infrastructure.
Israel’s blockade of Gaza, described by the UN fact-finding mission as “collective punishment”, stops reconstruction materials and humanitarian aid from reaching those who so desperately require it.
As a result of the blockade, many Palestinians, now suffering in the grip of winter, are forced to live in temporary shelters or partially destroyed homes. More than two-thirds of the population require United Nations aid merely to survive.
We call upon all parties to alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza and specifically the British government and the international community to apply meaningful pressure upon Israel to abide by UN security council resolution 1860, to end this flagrant abuse of international law and lift the blockade. The confinement and punishment of an entire population is no way to bring about peace for all the people of the Middle East.
Nick Clegg MP, leader of the Liberal Democrats; Richard Burden MP, chair of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group; Ed Davey MP, shadow foreign secretary, Liberal Democrats; Michael Moore MP, shadow secretary of state for international development, Liberal Democrats; Tony Lloyd MP, chair of the parliamentary Labour party; Dr Brian Iddon MP, secretary of the Britain-Palestine APPG; Christine Russell MP, treasurer of the Britain-Palestine APPG; Martin Linton MP, chair of Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East; Jo Swinson MP, foreign affairs spokesperson, Liberal Democrats; Baroness Northover, spokesperson on international development, House of Lords, Liberal Democrats; John Austin MP, joint chair of the Council for Arab-British Understanding; Roger Berry MP; Clive Betts MP; Colin Breed MP, joint chair of the Council for Arab-British Understanding; Peter Bottomley MP; Alistair Carmichael MP; Michael Connarty MP; Neil Gerrard MP; David Lepper MP; Tom Levitt MP; Andy Love MP; Bob Marshall-Andrews MP; Andrew Slaughter MP; Dr Phyllis Starkey MP; Lord Steel; Sarah Teather MP; Derek Wyatt MP; Sir Robert Atkins MEP
An Olympic gold for diversity
Your report suggesting that London 2012 organisers are not delivering on their commitment to promote equality and diversity fails to recognise the real achievements that have been made (“Sebastian Coe’s London Olympics team in row with equality watchdog”, News).
The London 2012 Equality and Diversity Forum’s recent publication Working Towards an Inclusive Games highlights London 2012’s Gold Standard Award for organisations taking part in the Diversity Works for London programme. This encourages London’s employers to put in place practices to support a diverse worker-and-supplier base and reap the business benefits that this provides.
Richard Barnes
deputy mayor of London; chair of the London 2012 Equality and Diversity Forum
No butts. I was the UC smoker
“No one has smoked on University Challenge for a long time, if ever” (Will Buckley, Sport). Can I put myself on the record here: Wingard, Sussex University, reading English, 1975? I smoked a couple of Player’s No 6 during the recording – there weren’t any ashtrays and I can’t remember what I did with the ash/dimps.
Did it impair my performance? I don’t know, but we were knocked out in the first round. My grandmother asked why I was surrounded by a kind of mist.
We were all very disappointed that the teams did not actually sit one on top of the other.
Andrew Wingard
Matlock Derbyshire

Independent:

Nina Lakhani’s shocking report (“UK fails to halt female mutilation”, 20 December) was one of several articles recently about attitudes and behaviour towards women in our society and the lack of any prosecutions or adequate education to address this.
Violent acts and hatred of women are being tolerated on a grand scale. If laws exist to protect women, why are these not being implemented? In the case of both sharia killings and genital mutilation, it should be made clear to all immigrants that such behaviour will not be tolerated and will result in the whole family being returned to their country of origin, regardless of generation. Those choosing to live in this country must decide if they are willing to forgo these practices as a condition of residence.
Mora McIntyre
Hove, East Sussex
I recently saw 2012, a typically effect-laden Hollywood film about the “always good American”. However, now that the betrayal that is the Copenhagen Accord is official, the exaggerations of 2012 don’t seem so far flung (“Copenhagen: A historic failure that will live in infamy”, 20 December). Please tell me how I can look my nieces and nephews in their innocent faces, and not dread the death sentence bequeathed upon their generation by self-serving politicians, lobbyists and fundamentalists alike? I’m ashamed to my very core. This is truly heartbreaking.
Wasim Yunus
via email
Gareth Thomas is to be praised for the public declaration of his homosexuality, but Thomas and the referee Nigel Owens are far from being the first high-profile members of the rugby community to take this brave step (“Gay rugby star praised for bravery in coming out”, 20 December). In 1995, Ian Roberts, the outstanding Australian international forward came out. Roberts, regarded as one of the toughest players ever to participate in the toughest of all rugby encounters, the State of Origin series, was awarded the prestigious Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for his contribution to Rugby League.
Howard Davenport
Harrold, Bedfordshire
Cheques are not only used by “grannies” sending gifts to “grandkids” (“After 350 years, bankers… get something right”, 20 December). The loss of the cheque would make impossible the sending of unsolicited gifts of money, whether to family members or others, notably charities. Other forms of payment Julian Knight mentions all demand pre-arrangement between giver and receiver. Postal orders depend on sender and receiver both living close to one of the few post offices still in business. If other methods exist or are planned, why aren’t the banks busy assuring us that this is the case, giving us a few examples, asking for our ideas?
Chris Sladen
Woodstock , Oxfordshire
It would be heartening to believe our politicians might read and then act on the new book Globalisation and Varieties of Capitalism on the disastrous state of the British economy so warmly welcomed by Margareta Pagano (“Thatcher got it wrong. Blair and Brown did too. Can Cameron get it right?”, 20 December). But there’s little evidence that our MPs are economically literate, even less do much fresh thinking once they become ministers. And with Lord Mandelson’s pre-Christmas greeting about university cuts, we can’t be too cheery about our youngsters learning much about turning round this sceptred isle either. Just how bad do things have to become before the free-market idiocies of Thatcher and her New Labour followers are junked?
Harry Walton
via email
Lord Mandelson’s proposal to condense into two years the three years of a degree course may benefit those who cannot afford to go to university now. Many undergraduates have only a very few contact hours as it is, and, even allowing for private study, fill out their three years with paid work that funds their lengthy course. I propose, first, a year out after school spent growing up, possibly doing community work or simply earning. This could be followed by a two-year intensive degree course that prepares undergraduates for the long hours of full-time employment.
Phoebe Woods
Hereford
In Italy it is compulsory to carry snow chains in the car from November to April. Why cannot such a simple measure be enforced here?
Silvia Massi
via email
You asked for nominations for the People of the Year. Alistair Brownlee is one of the most talented sportsmen Britain has had. He won the triathlon world championship, a sport that has the highest growth in Britain. He is only 21 years old and, after winning the world championship race in London, went on to win the overall world championship in Australia.
Stephen Thomas
Durham

Times:

TONY BLAIR was always a deluded egomaniac (“It’s only you Brits who don’t appreciate me”, News, and “What Tony did next”, News Review, last week). He now wonders why he is not popular in Britain and blames the press for this, but it is the majority of the people who are bitterly disappointed at the wasted years of his leadership. He hijacked the old Labour party and turned it into the Tory party by another name, so depriving Britain of any real opposition.
In home affairs, he promised so much and delivered almost nothing. He caused confusion and damage to education, the police, justice, health and defence services, among others. He took us into an illegal war. In office, it appears he forgot who elected him and ended up managing the press office. I suspect we remain interested in him to learn how on earth we all got it so wrong.
Chris Bennett
Elstead, Surrey
Goodwill hunting
Blair just doesn’t get it. For despite all his protestations about his “good work”, most of his endeavours are funded by other people and his flying back and forth across the world on his religiously inspired goodwill missions has achieved little. We have heard quite enough of his sycophantic, self-serving, evangelistic hypocrisy.
Mabel Taylor
Knutsford, Cheshire
Cold shoulder
Blair says there is “a completely different atmosphere around me outside the country \”. Except for reporting his latest “I believe” on the legitimacy of the Iraq war, whatever he is doing doesn’t warrant any mention in the German press. David Douglas
Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

Times:

I DID not need convincing that Daisy Waugh had “no idea of the rules any more” (Waugh Zone, Magazine, last week). Many pubescents will have referred to “the old filth” and will probably have a few choice epithets for their own parents — it is the nature of the age.
Waugh has the appearance of a grown woman (and a spike-heeled, über-shouldered one at that). She might like to know that “relatively sane mothers” do strap their children into their seats. It is still a simple matter to be a law-abiding citizen.
When I had a run-in with some local feral adolescents, the police officer was no less outraged than I was that the Crown Prosecution Service chose not to proceed. When my MG MGB spluttered to a halt on the side of a motorway, I was soon exchanging pleasantries with the occupants of a police patrol car. I am always grateful for the presence of police when I attend football matches.
No doubt Waugh is generally inoffensive, and possibly even entertaining round a dinner table, but she really has no idea and has to grow up.
Nicola Graham
Fordingbridge, Hampshire
Abuse of authority
Thank God it’s not just me. I feel constantly under threat, not from the hoodies we are expected to fear but from all the puffed-up little people who hold their little bit of authority. Our lives have changed. I have had enough. Daisy echoes everything I feel, as those around me do.
Keep us safe, try to keep us in line, but I for one have very little respect for the police, the traffic wardens and the council officials who tick boxes to keep their jobs, with no interest in the real task. I have a panic attack when I see a police car (I live in the country and have a clean licence).
Linda Crossley
Bodfari, Denbighshire
Grandpa said
Waugh’s grandfather Evelyn Waugh is quoted as saying: “We can trace almost all the disasters of English history to the influence of Wales.” Has this shaped her views (“Don’t look back in anger”, Home, last week)?
Charles Vaughan-Jones
Montgomery, Powys
Voice of reason
If ever one page of any publication summed up the state of this once fabulous nation, then Waugh Zone does so in telling fashion.
I only hope those charged with government read and take note, let alone an electorate sleepwalking into a worsening nightmare. I am Welsh — and I’m not in any way offended by her remarks on the land of my dad.
Alan Carroll
London SW15

AS I waited to go on as Nutroast Nora in Peter Pan at the Liverpool Empire, I read Maxie Szalwinska’s review of the Hackney Empire’s Aladdin (Culture, December 13). Hackney has built up a much deserved reputation for high-quality pantomime, and Clive Rowe’s performances have earned him an Olivier nomination, giving this uniquely British art form some serious credibility.
The final sentence, though, left me disappointed and cross: “A rebuff to lazy, commercial pantos across the land.” Modern, commercial panto is seen as the shoddy offspring of subsidised traditional panto. Nothing could be further from the truth. Going back to the days of Dan Leno, pantomime has used popular songs and cultural references — such as jokes about The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing.
Some of our greatest panto performers cut their teeth in the genre. Arthur Askey and Les Dawson were exceptional dames, and Roy Hudd knows more about slapstick than many working today. A good traditional panto can leave an audience, as Szalwinska says, “close to deliriously happy”, but so can a good commercial one.
Les Dennis
London N6

YOUR article (“Google pays no tax on £1.6bn”, News, last week) shows how out of touch our politicians are. Are we really to expect any company to volunteer to pay its “fair share”, as Vince Cable puts it? If the government wants to collect more tax, it should show a favourable disposition towards big business.
Ivor Freedman, London NW3
Playing the system
The disclosure that Google has not paid tax has prompted politicians to criticise it for “ducking its social responsibility” and for avoiding tax. Surely it is doing exactly what those very same politicians have been doing — legitimately “using” the system for its (their) own benefit, without breaking the law. There is, however, one big difference: Google provides a valuable service.
Bharat Jashanmal, Fairford, Gloucestershire

Telegraph:

SIR – Were health and safety officers overworked last week? I ask because I was surprised not to hear of any schools or council playgrounds which had banned snowball fights. Snowfights are just a bit of fun, but I would have expected killjoy bureaucrats to have pounced with risk assessment forms, seeing an opportunity to gain self-worth. Are they finally getting the message?
Jim Taylor
Liverpool
SIR – I read (report, December 20) that the Conservative Party is to consider bringing the laws governing self-defence up-to-date after the next election. However, I also notice the use of the word “consider”, rather than the word “will”.
I have friends in America and have visited them on several occasions. They tell me that in some states the crime of burglary is virtually unknown. Significantly, these are the states that give the home owner the right to kill, if necessary, anyone illegally in their home without fear of prosecution. Why can’t we have such a right? It would do away with the rather woolly concept of “reasonable force”.
To take matters one step further, why can’t citizens with no criminal records hold a firearm for the purposes of self defence in their own home? I don’t see that such a measure would increase gun crime – since the present laws were introduced gun crime has rocketed.
Peter Williams
Newbury, Berkshire
SIR – Your leading article (December 20) could not have been more timely and it is healthy to see a national newspaper describe the claim of the judge in the recent case concerning Munir Hussain as “fatuous” and “self-evident nonsense”.
The judge’s claim is also infantile and perhaps, therefore, a suggestion of one of my children might be appropriate. If you wish to confront a menacing burglar in your home, you should on no account shoot or strike him in the back but, before taking any defensive action, you should ask him to turn round and face you.
Peter Spira
London W14
SIR – It is all very well to call for “the right to defend yourself”, but even burglars should not be subjected to gratuitous violence. Unless the law is carefully drafted, there is a risk that private citizens could get away with revenge killings, which would be regrettable.
Simon Smith
Manchester
SIR – It was refreshing to read your soundly libertarian take on self-defence in the home.
There is an assumption that we should rely only on the police for our defence, but the police are never around when you need them.
They are so obsessed with penalising law-abiding citizens that giving greater rights to ordinary citizens is vital.
Peter Brown
Leeds
Labour toffs
SIR – Melissa Kite (report, December 20) writes that David Cameron intends to make more use of Kenneth Clarke, who “although privately educated is seen by the public as ordinary”.
In fact, Mr Clarke was educated at Nottingham Grammar School, which, when he attended it, was free to all those who passed the academic entrance test.
However, by the time Ed Balls attended the very same school, the destruction of the meritocratic Grammar School system had begun, and it had become a fee-paying private establishment. So in this case it is the Labour minister who was the privileged toff, and the Tory who was the state-educated boy.
Melanie Eskenazi
Cheam, Surrey
Scotland’s debts
SIR – The smugness of Angus MacNeil MP (Letters, December 20) in complaining about the cost to Scottish taxpayers of remaining part of the debt-laiden UK is astonishing.
A fair chunk of the debt has been incurred bailing out two Scottish banks, and, in the unlikely event that the Scots would agree to part company from England, they should take the financial responsibility those bail-outs.
Chris Tinley
Bristol
SIR – It would be ironic if the debts from bailing out Scottish banks was a cause of Scottish independence, since it was disastrous Scottish financial speculation that triggered the creation the Union in the first place.
Nick Toeman
Maidenhead, Berkshire
Royal Mail’s charges
SIR – Jeremy Greenwood (Letters, December 20) mentions the VAT and duty imposed on presents from Australia.
He was also subjected by Royal Mail to an £8 “international handling charge”. This charge is excessive and another way for Royal Mail to make easy money at the expense of its customers. I, too, had to pay this for a parcel with Christmas presents from New Zealand worth £30. I received a card from the postman stating that there was a parcel at the collection depot which, if I wanted to collect, would incur a payment of £11.67 for customs charges.
In fact, only £3.67 was tax and the rest was Royal Mail’s charge.
Arthur Hamill
New Milton, Hampshire
Reviewing sceptics
SIR – Peer review (Letters, December 20) is a filter that prevents the publication of research containing errors or lacking evidence. It does so irrespective of the authority or academic standing of the authors. What would those who distrust it propose as an alternative?
Without peer review, science would descend into anarchy. The entire scientific endeavour would be reduced to the equivalent of an unmoderated blog, on which anyone could publish anything without the inconvenient burdens of evidence and critical scrutiny.
Dr Paul Williams
Royal Society Research Fellow
University of Reading, Reading
Slow carols
SIR – Simon Heffer awards null points to Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It may be due to more tempo than tune.
An uncle who served in the pre-war Indian Army said that it made an excellent quick march. Returning from operations in the area where the Pakistani Army is now engaged, he heard it played by the band of the Sherwood Foresters on their Christmas church parade.
Edward Spalton
Derby
Poor Britain
SIR – Ed Miliband thinks that the rich nations should contribute more to the poorer ones to help them effect change.
When do we receive our payment?
Dr Nigel Knott
Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire
Local planning decisions overturned
SIR – I share your concern (Leading article, December 20) about the numbers of gardens being concreted over by developers to provide infill dwellings.
What is perhaps even more concerning is the apparent disregard for local opinions. In our already crowded cul-de-sac, the parish council voted unanimously against a proposed development, following representations from residents. One councillor described the plan as the worst case of urban infill she had ever seen.
The planning authority, East Hampshire District Council, rejected the application, only for the developer to appeal. The appeal was upheld by the Planning Inspectorate in Bristol. This makes a mockery of local democracy. I wonder what proportion of these developments go ahead by virtue of appeal to these faceless bureaucrats in Bristol.
David Bickerton
Horndean, Hampshire
SIR – If people with large gardens want to realise their valuable asset, good for them. They are showing good entrepreneurial sense.
A willing seller and a willing buyer is private enterprise at its best and should be supported.
Les Waterhouse
Titchfield, Hampshire
The wrong beef
SIR – I was sorry to read that the Queen patronises the Goring Hotel (Mandrake, December 20). Like Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, the Goring has roast beef on the menu, carved from a trolley, but both establishments serve only Aberdeen Angus-Charolais cross.
As far as I know there is no London restaurant now which serves beef sourced from pure Aberdeen Angus, or any other British native breed, without the Charolais cross.
The Charolais degrades the flavour and tenderness. Simpson’s built up a worldwide reputation for roast beef, based on pure Aberdeen Angus. The policy changed about 20 years ago, and they lost me as a regular diner.
James Lewis
Wembley, Middlesex
Pleasure of longer days
SIR – Here in West Cornwall creatures are already taking advantage of the lengthening days. On one day last week I was spotted two bumblebees, a Red Admiral butterfly and a crow with beak stuffed with what could only be described as nest-making material.
God bless the gulf stream.
Paul Michelmore
Cornwall

Well I must be off

best wishes John

Christmas Day 2009

December 26, 2009 by johnblakey

Christmas Day 2009 26 December 2009

The Christmas snow has started to melt it reached its peak of perfection on Christmas Eve but now its a slow thaw and drip drip drip. It a little worn alittle duller and grey, but still its nice to have snow at Christmas. Christmas Day is the quietest of days outside, no cars except the odd one, no deliveries just peace and quiet.
A kindly German pen friend has send us some German cat food for the cats for their Christmas. Sharland too writes every Christmas to three German cats. I wonder if their owners read them out to them?Fluff and Puddy streak into the kitchen black and white blurs and settle down expectantly for their Teutonic repast. Puddy manages a bite out of Fluff’s place before eating her own. Kitten is not quite so interested, but has half of it. When I put it down I could feel the physical force of a glare from Puddy, Why aren’t I giving it to her? Well she’s had hers and a bit of Fluff’s besides, and now she gets half of Kitten’s, and what is worse Pud never gets fat, life ain’t fair!
My German pen friend has not forgotten Mr squirrel, a especially wrapped walnut is enclosed too, I gingerly go out into the rapidly melting snow and carefully climb the stairs on to the garage roof so that Mr Squirrel can have his present too. Its gone in a flash.
Mary rings Joan, who has a cough but otherwise is fine, how unlike last year when she was languishing in Leeds General Infirmary with us visiting her amongst dutiful relatives bearing gifts. How pleasant it is not to have to go out.
We are having a quiet Christmas this year no parties no visiting lunch is cheese and pate and toast, and then we watch the Queen. That Grand old lady, so old and still doing her duty. Her annual Christmas broadcast is all about the Commonwealth a group of nations bound together in harmony. Now in her 80s I fear that she will not be with us much longer. I wonder how Charles will do as King?
Forswearing turkey, there is only the two of us this year I put on the steak and ale pie, with salad; rice, tomatoes avocado, red pepper, mayonnaise and of course olives, delicious.
We settle down and watch the The Great St Trinians Train Robbery, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_St_Trinian%27s_Train_Robbery Absolutely delightful to see the old pros going through their paces, with dear old Frankie Howerd leading the pack. Afterwords we play Scrabble and Mary beats me! A quiet Christmas on the whole but quite good fun, I wonder what Christmas 2010 will bring?

Postcards

Boating lake, Singleton park, Swansea, Wales

Boating lake, Singleton park, Swansea, Wales

Louise C. Paris ‘Burling Gap’ September 30 1852

Louise C. Paris 'Burling Gap' September 30 1852

Holkham Hall, South Front and Terrace Garden, North Norfolk, England

Holkham Hall, South Front and Terrace Garden, North Norfolk, England

The Old Bridge Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland, England

The Old Bridge Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland, England

Westfield Holiday Centre Bonchurch Isle of Wight, UK

Westfield Holiday Centre Bonchurch Isle of Wight, UK

Christmas Eve snow pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/sets/72157623067726666/

Obituary: Georgina Parkinson: Ballerina

The beautiful, dark-haired Georgina Parkinson rose quickly to prominence in the Royal Ballet and was subsequently a ballet mistress of the American Ballet Theatre for more than 30 years.
Born and brought up in Brighton, East Sussex, she attended a convent school where the nuns observed her high insteps and recommended concentration on the ballet. This she did, first taking lessons locally and then winning a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School.
Although her graduation performance was as Odette in Swan Lake, and she later occasionally took classical solos in La Bayadère, in Giselle as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, in Raymonda and in Les Sylphides, it was in ballets created by living choreographers that she had her greatest successes.
Above all, among more than 50 roles that she danced, her biggest triumph was in Bronislava Nijinska’s 1964 revival for the Royal Ballet of her ballet Les Biches, in which Parkinson was surprised and delighted to find herself chosen by the choreographer to play La Garçonne, the ambiguously erotic creature in a blue tunic, whom she brought vividly to life, thanks to intensive coaching by Nijinska herself over a period of time.
Otherwise, Parkinson was lucky to have roles created for her by the Royal Ballet’s director Frederick Ashton in the second of his pure dance miniatures Monotones, in Erik Satie’s Trois Gnossiennes, and as the romantically inclined character of Edward Elgar’s friend Winifred Norbury in Enigma Variations.
It was Kenneth MacMillan, however, who invented the greatest number of parts specially for Parkinson. They were the withdrawn Tsarina in the revised version of his dramatic Anastasia, the gaoler’s erotic mistress in the first version of Manon, as the Empress Elisabeth, the difficult mother of the hero of Mayerling, and leading parts in Symphony, a plotless work to Shostakovich’s music but with strong dramatic implications.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6967485.ece

Letters:

Independent:

The decision by the Supreme Court to force the Jewish Free School to open its doors to a student whose mother is Jewish by conversion has been denounced by the Orthodox Jewish establishment as a threat to freedom of religion, dictating to Jews who is, and who is not, a member of their community. This is nothing more than a power play launched by one sect against another.
Orthodox Judaism believes that its people are chosen of God and have a particular covenant with Him. Each succeeding generation of the chosen must pass that on to its heirs. Chosen-ness is regarded as something almost genetic, eternally present and indestructible.
This acconts for a traditional reluctance to proslytise. It also results in the curious existence of people like myself, who are both Jewish by birth and atheist by conviction. I may be, in the eyes of the Orthodox, a bad Jew, but they cannot kick me out of the community, as, for example, the Catholic Church may excommunicate a member.
The last couple of centuries have witnessed the creation of various sects within Judaism. The liberal wing does not seem to have any problems with conversion as a way into full membership of the community. This does not sit well with the Orthodox who inhabit the office of the Chief Rabbi; and so, if they must accept the process of conversion, they wish to control it, not allowing any other group to certify that conversion has taken place.
There are other questions to which this judicial decision gives rise, notably that of the existence of faith schools in general and government funding of them in particular. But so long as they continue to exist, it is normal that the state may and should intervene in their mode of functioning.
Jeffry Kaplow
London SE3
I think both your report and your leading article of 17 December, have missed the point. JFS refused admission to the child because his mother had been converted at a progressive, not an Orthodox synagogue. He would have been admitted had she been converted at an Orthodox synagogue. The problem has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. It concerns a dispute about the authenticity of progressive Judaism.
It is easy to understand the frustration of the family but it is unfortunate that the civil courts are involved in an internal religious dispute.
Allen Shaw
Leeds
Life of cheques in the balance
After the UK Payments Council decision to abandon the three-century history of the cheque, I have to wonder exactly how small and new businesses are supposed to accept payments?
As a specialist who helps small enterprises protect their transactions, I know of numerous occasions where banks and payment processing intermediaries have refused to provide card-processing services. If new and small enterprises are blocked from taking electronic payments, the only conclusion is that they either abandon trade or focus on accepting cash, because there appears no other alternative on offer when cheques cease to be issued.
This move is another burden for any new entrepreneur wanting to trade. Is this the future of the country, where every new and small enterprise is blocked by the banks as unprofitable?
We need a new bank prepared to serve those being barred from trade, by providing suitable processing services at a competitive price, or a new alliance of those banks prepared to continue issuing and processing cheques.
Michael Bond
Sterling-Bond Escrow Services, Stockport, Cheshire
Would it be too much to expect the banks to devote some time over the next nine years to developing a replacement for the cheque?
I use digital banking and credit and debit cards, and shop on the internet (despite being a pensioner), but there are times when only a cheque will do. I live in a small village, and occasionally have to pay for logs delivered, the chimney-sweep, the man repairing our oven, the village shopkeeper for our papers, and tradesmen plastering ceilings, etc.
They all want cash or a cheque. As it’s a drive to the nearest cash machine and I don’t want to keep much cash in the house; a cheque is the usual choice.
Could someone develop a safe way to make electronic payments on the doorstep to someone who can’t take debit or credit cards?
Howard Dimmock
Pettaugh, Suffolk
It is all very well for the banks to say most financial transactions use credit and debit cards. I use cards myself most of the time, but there are times when a cheque is the most convenient way to pay and receive money.
I run what amounts, in secular terms, to a small business: three smallish parishes of the Church of England. Every month, I receive cheques for a total of between £1,500 and £2,000 from funeral directors, monumental masons, wedding couples and others. It’s the easiest way for people to pay for the services we provide.
None of this money is mine: I have to account for it, and every month I have to disburse it in various proportions to the diocese, to the two parochial church councils and to whatever organist has played for a particular wedding or funeral. I struggle to think of a more convenient and easily accountable way of doing this than simply to write a cheque.
John Williams
West Wittering, Chichester
Your correspondent David Wilkie (letters, 19 December) asks what the alternative to a cheque might be when sending money to children or grandchildren? My two sons find crisp £20 notes are perfectly acceptable.
Edward Collier
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Pushing barriers on climate change
Mary Dejevsky’s piece “Don’t panic, Copenhagen wasn’t such a disaster” (22 December) neatly illustrates that wise old saying, “If you can keep your head while all around are losing theirs, you don’t understand the situation.”
She asks, “Will, say, a year’s wait for a global agreement to limit the projected temperature rise to C hasten the drowning of the Maldives? Or even parts of East Anglia?”
Well, actually, yes, or at least it will make them more certain to happen. We have only a very narrow window in which to cut emissions on the scale required to stop at a C rise, and knocking a year off the timescale will make it virtually impossible to achieve.
Ms Dejevsky’s question is equivalent to “The fire brigade didn’t answer my 999 call, but won’t tomorrow do?”
And to argue that Copenhagen failed only because climate-change “alarmists”‘ set the bar too high all but marks her as a denier. We “alarmists” set the bar where the scientists tell us it needs to be set, if we are to have any chance of averting catastrophe.
Bill Linton
London N13
It is sad that Mary Dejevsky dismissed campaigners who are speaking up for the billions of people in developing nations who have the most to lose from climate change as “alarmists, prophesying doom”. With such overwhelming and peer-reviewed evidence warning us of the consequences of doing nothing, NGOs such as ActionAid have every right to be involved in the debate and to continue to demand cuts in carbon and financial assistance for the poor to cope with the consequences of climate change.
If the “near-hysterical activists”, as she puts it, had been allowed by governments “to make the running” then why isn’t there an effective, legally binding agreement?
The Copenhagen Accord was frankly shambolic and has done little to help the poorest countries adapt to climate change. With decades of investigations and the vast majority of climate scientists agreeing that global warming results from our own actions; it is only the foolhardy who would champion Copenhagen as a positive outcome.
Tom Sharman
Climate Justice Co-ordinator
ActionAid UK
London N19
Dangers of rule by big business
I would really like to know who actually runs the country. I live in a small market town and it is clear to me, even in my isolation, that big business runs the country.
All around me, I see big business sucking the life out of the locality and, I must assume, the country. Pub companies are ruining towns and villages. In Kendal, I counted nine out of 15 pubs were boarded-up, tenant landlords driven out by rapidly rising pubco costs.
Did anyone else note that as soon as the union announced that British Airways staff were to strike for 12 days over Christmas the other airlines “sympathetic” to the plight of stranded travellers-to-be immediately hiked up the price of all their flights.
I own a bakery; if we had two bakeries in my town, one went bankrupt and I then doubled the price of bread to profit from this I would be vilified and driven out of business, and rightly so. Until we start to apply local standards of behaviour to big business, our lives will continue to be controlled by them.
After Ted Heath’s destruction at the hands of the trade unions in the 1970s, everyone assumed that the Labour movement was untouchable. It had become a fact of life and there was nothing you could do about it. To Margaret Thatcher’s credit, she didn’t agree.
The Conservative Party and the Labour Party have now both been bought by big business. Perhaps now the answer is to look at the alternative, and let’s hope they are both Liberal and Democratic.
Owain Dew-Hughes
Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
Strange views on breast-feeding
What strange people the British are to find the natural act of a mother breast-feeding her child offensive, or even obscene (letter, 21 December).
I am thankful I had my children in Spain, where one could breast-feed anywhere at all and nobody gave a second glance. This was in the time of the Fascist dictator General Francisco Franco, whose ideas on public decency bordered on the fanatical, yet breast-feeding mothers were accepted by everybody as the natural part of life, which they are.
If there are people who find this natural procedure “offensive”, or even “obscene”, why do they not simply look elsewhere, which would in any case be more polite? It almost seems as though there are those who are looking for an opportunity to feel and express vicarious sentiments of shock and disgust
Suzanne Tiburtius
Canterbury, Kent
Close shave
Harriet Walker (“Tom Ford’s life in fashion”, 22 December) describes a bottle of aftershave “nestling between a fulsome pair of breasts”. The word “fulsome” really means unctuous or oily but, having read the article on Ford, I think Ms Walker has got it about right.
David Hasell
Leatherhead, Surrey
Shut that door
Why are shops permitted to leave their doors open? Walking down High Street UK in the winter months is an unnerving experience as gales of heated air blast passers-by. The retailers’ strategy may increase shoppers’ footfall but it does nothing to reduce our carbon footprint. Shopkeepers caught with open doors should be fined. This would be an elementary but significant carbon tax. It would also increase public confidence in CCTV.
Steven Fogel
London EC4
Free internet
Shouvik Datta (letters, 11 December) says of the digital divide referred to in Johann Hari’s 8 December article on the internet, “Only those with access to a computer and the financial means to open an account can use email, or surf the internet”. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, every one of the more than 4,000 public libraries offers access to computers and the internet. Library staff help people to get online and set up email accounts. In Orpington, Kent, where Mr Datta lives, library internet access is free.
Fiona Williams
President, The Society of Chief Librarians, York
All the Rage
In Tom Sutcliffe’s article, “Online Activists can be a force for good” (22 December), he seems to imply that, to date, the efforts of online campaigners has had a negative impact. Those of us involved with the recent Rage Against the Machine campaign beg to differ. Aside from achieving a win for Rage, the combined efforts of those involved raised more than £85,000 for Shelter. We may not be toppling dictatorships yet but considering the amount of opposition we faced just trying to get an outside track to number one, is it any wonder?
Peter Lewis
Alresford, Hampshire
Labour love lost
Of course Labour support is rising despite their economic mismanagement. They created the mess. Let them clear it up.
Robert Davies
London SE3

Times:

Sir, Past and present governments are responsible for the predicament that universities now find themselves in (“Huge cash cuts to hit teaching at universities”, Dec 23). It was considered a mistake, at the time, to elevate all polytechnics to university status in what was seen as a vote-catching exercise by the government of the day.
Polytechnics served a double and unique purpose. One was to offer courses that were tailor-made for industry, courses that universities did not offer and at the same time recruit local students that lived at home. By making all polytechnics into universities, many industry-based courses were lost and the new universities had to create accommodation for students recruited from outside their immediate catchment area, thereby increasing their financial burden.
I was fortunate to be educated at both a polytechnic and a university and appreciated their different roles in higher and further education. Today’s predicament should fall squarely on the shoulders of the Government, not educational establishments, since it was the choice of the Government to create this situation in the first place.
We all now have to fish in the same pot to recruit our “customers”, and at the same time compete with each other, thereby increasing the overall financial burden for education at this level.
Dr Phil Fletcher
Director, Centre for Industrial Studies, 1984-87, Loughborough University of Technology
Sir, Lord Mandelson suggests that some degrees can be completed in two years. He is probably not aware that the consensus of my colleagues in engineering is that the current first year is largely consumed with the task of getting students up to a common level of maths and physics, which was achieved by A levels in the past.
By the end of the second year few have reached the attainment of scholarship students of 40 years ago.
Is this how he wants us to prepare our graduates?
Professor Roderick A. Smith
Deputy President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Sir, The abandonment of three academic terms in favour of two semesters per year has, in many universities, resulted in the taught time for degrees being reduced from 90 to 72 weeks for a three-year undergraduate course.
This, coupled with an increase of administrative and entrepreneurial staff, together with whatever bandwagon university directorates decide to jump aboard, has been afforded both by government funding and cuts in teaching staff. Those academic staff who are replaced are selected from a totally research-based background rather than those with professional expertise. This means that many courses are taught by staff who have surface knowledge only. It also causes communication problems with undergraduates.
This does not appear to bother those experts in management, quality or human resources who gladly continue to tell each other what a good job they are doing.
There is enormous scope for savings in higher education, but my fear is that more entrepreneurs will be required to handle additional cuts together with a corresponding increase in student fees in order to support flabby management.
Terence J. Oliver
Gosport, Hants

Trudi Morris wrote:
I’m too young to remember the polytechnics, bar the fact there was one across the road from where I was brought up in Kentish Town. It’s flats now, which to me says it all.
December 26, 2009 1:07 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

John Rabson wrote:
What was the point of allowing polytechnics to call themselves universities? Would anyone from MIT, Caltech or ETH Zurich care to comment?

A French engineer once told me “In France, universities are for thickos. _I_ am a polytechnicien”.

Sir, I read with interest the report (Dec 23) of Prince William spending a night sleeping rough in London. While this was a laudable exercise in highlighting the extreme poverty of certain of our citizens, it ought to be pointed out that the reverse touristic experience of spending a night as the Prince, and thereby highlighting the extreme privilege of his life, is unavailable to a destitute person.
Is not one extreme as distasteful as the other?
Clive Hunter
Belfast

Trudi Morris wrote:
There seems to have been quite a fashion this year of ‘experiencing’ homelessness. It’s all a game and an insult to the genuinely impovererished in my view. Poverty isn’t just about cold or hunger, it’s a state of mind. As I heard said once, the only difference between the doorman and the MD is that the doorman believes he’s worth nothing more than opening doors and the MD believes he rules the world. Its not about capability, it’s about belief.

I’m a ‘poor’ person myself but feel no jealousy towards those better off than me. I personally find such an attitude saddest of all. I’m not a fan of William, (he’s more of his mother than his father), but if you want the riches that he has, in this day and age it’s perfectly possible to earn it. (Madonna, Jade Goody, Robbie Williams, Spice Girls…………)
December 26, 2009 1:18 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Peter Cressall wrote:
No. Poverty is distasteful, particularly when perople make no effort to get out of it.
December 26, 2009 12:12 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

tony roberts wrote:
I felt rather sorry for William’s bodyguard.

Sir, Robert Gowers’s fine ear for English-German wordplay (“Eurostar and a traveller’s sanity”, letter, Dec 23) might lead him also to ponder the wanderer’s complaint: “Wie weit noch bis zur Bahre!” (Winterreise, Der greise Kopf). Indeed, one wonders whether it may not be the fruitless search for a non-existent buffet car that finally tips this wintry traveller over into insanity.
Dr Nicholas Marston
University Reader in Music Theory and Analysis
Fellow, Praelector, and Director of Studies in Music
King’s College, Cambridge

Telegraph:

SIR – It is hard to characterise the year 2009 (Letters, December 23), even as a year of avarice. But for the decade that people call the Noughties, the great question is whether it confirmed the secularisation of British culture or saw a resurgence in the importance of religion.
One might think, from the noise made by writers such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, that atheism had become the new orthodoxy. Sometimes a similar impression is giving by studio audiences for discussion programmes, or, more indicatively, comedy programmes, where godliness is mocked.

But yesterday churches were full. In the complicated movements of migrants into and out of our country, Christian congregations have been reinforced. If children are sent to church schools only because parents want a better standard of education, at least that suggests that a religious milieu does supply the desired underpinning of such an education.
Big thinkers such as Charles Taylor, with his book A Secular Age (2007), disprove the inevitability of a developed society becoming a secular one. The close observation of trends by the journalists John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge in their book God is Back this year suggests that the pattern of religious decline in Europe is being reversed worldwide.
I felt this year that when people wished me a Happy Christmas, it did not embody a dead convention, but reflected a still living culture in Britain which has survived being taken for granted.
David Brown
London NW6
SIR – A century ago the American philosopher and psychologist William James wrote of how “the baby”, assailed by its senses “feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion”. But also of how later it learns to make sense of the world.
Meanwhile, it was said of his brother, the novelist Henry, that “when he walked out of the refuge of his study and into the world and looked around him, he saw a place of torment”.
These sibling observations touch upon two significant aspects of human experience that call for some explanation. First, that we can interpret the world: discerning the structure of objects and tracing the patterns of cause and effect. Secondly, that we are sensitive to good and evil: responding naturally to the landscape of values.
It has become common to deride religion as a refuge for ignorance; yet religion has a simple and compelling explanation for these striking facts of human experience. The world is open to our inquiries because it is intelligible and because we were equipped with intelligence; and we are troubled by cruelty and suffering because we are moral beings who recognise that we are called to a better kind of life.
Christianity teaches that we are enabled to understand the deepest meaning of the world and to achieve that nobler existence, because of one who shared in the blooming buzzing confusion of infancy and in the torment of the adult world.
The God who made us minded and mindful, also entered into our condition to rescue it from self-inflicted turmoil.
Set alongside the Christmas message that “the Maker of the stars and sea became a child on earth for me” (John Betjeman), atheism’s strident denials seem incapable of inspiration, and its claims to intellectual superiority are without substance.
Far from diminishing human understanding, religion has the power to broaden and deepen it.
Professor John Haldane
Department of Moral Philosophy
University of St Andrews
Hunting for Tory policy
SIR – Charles Moore’s piece based on a study of Baily’s Hunting Directory (Comment, December 22), was excellent. Hunting flourishes in much of the world without statutory interference, mainly in Ireland, the United States and New Zealand, as he pointed out. Only here have the moralists prevailed who, in a fit of pique, pushed forward their abolitionist agenda.
As someone who has followed hounds on foot and on horseback all over these islands and in New Zealand, I reject accusations of cruelty.
However, it also seems wrong-headed to accuse our opponents of being motivated by class-based spite. Class in any meaningful sense has long gone, though wealth and poverty remain, as they do anywhere.
Our only hope is with the Conservatives next year. It will take just a one-line Bill to repeal the ban, not hours of ministerial or parliamentary time. If they win the general election, but then proceed to dodge this issue, it will be a baleful day for Britain.
James Lewis
Wembley, Middlesex
SIR – While I hesitate to disagree with Charles Moore, some of my FSIR – It is hard to characterise the year 2009 (Letters, December 23), even as a year of avarice. But for the decade that people call the Noughties, the great question is whether it confirmed the secularisation of British culture or saw a resurgence in the importance of religion.
One might think, from the noise made by writers such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, that atheism had become the new orthodoxy. Sometimes a similar impression is giving by studio audiences for discussion programmes, or, more indicatively, comedy programmes, where godliness is mocked.

But yesterday churches were full. In the complicated movements of migrants into and out of our country, Christian congregations have been reinforced. If children are sent to church schools only because parents want a better standard of education, at least that suggests that a religious milieu does supply the desired underpinning of such an education.
Big thinkers such as Charles Taylor, with his book A Secular Age (2007), disprove the inevitability of a developed society becoming a secular one. The close observation of trends by the journalists John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge in their book God is Back this year suggests that the pattern of religious decline in Europe is being reversed worldwide.
I felt this year that when people wished me a Happy Christmas, it did not embody a dead convention, but reflected a still living culture in Britain which has survived being taken for granted.
David Brown
London NW6
SIR – A century ago the American philosopher and psychologist William James wrote of how “the baby”, assailed by its senses “feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion”. But also of how later it learns to make sense of the world.
Meanwhile, it was said of his brother, the novelist Henry, that “when he walked out of the refuge of his study and into the world and looked around him, he saw a place of torment”.
These sibling observations touch upon two significant aspects of human experience that call for some explanation. First, that we can interpret the world: discerning the structure of objects and tracing the patterns of cause and effect. Secondly, that we are sensitive to good and evil: responding naturally to the landscape of values.
It has become common to deride religion as a refuge for ignorance; yet religion has a simple and compelling explanation for these striking facts of human experience. The world is open to our inquiries because it is intelligible and because we were equipped with intelligence; and we are troubled by cruelty and suffering because we are moral beings who recognise that we are called to a better kind of life.
Christianity teaches that we are enabled to understand the deepest meaning of the world and to achieve that nobler existence, because of one who shared in the blooming buzzing confusion of infancy and in the torment of the adult world.
The God who made us minded and mindful, also entered into our condition to rescue it from self-inflicted turmoil.
Set alongside the Christmas message that “the Maker of the stars and sea became a child on earth for me” (John Betjeman), atheism’s strident denials seem incapable of inspiration, and its claims to intellectual superiority are without substance.
Far from diminishing human understanding, religion has the power to broaden and deepen it.
Professor John Haldane
Department of Moral Philosophy
University of St Andrews
Hunting for Tory policy
SIR – Charles Moore’s piece based on a study of Baily’s Hunting Directory (Comment, December 22), was excellent. Hunting flourishes in much of the world without statutory interference, mainly in Ireland, the United States and New Zealand, as he pointed out. Only here have the moralists prevailed who, in a fit of pique, pushed forward their abolitionist agenda.
As someone who has followed hounds on foot and on horseback all over these islands and in New Zealand, I reject accusations of cruelty.
However, it also seems wrong-headed to accuse our opponents of being motivated by class-based spite. Class in any meaningful sense has long gone, though wealth and poverty remain, as they do anywhere.
Our only hope is with the Conservatives next year. It will take just a one-line Bill to repeal the ban, not hours of ministerial or parliamentary time. If they win the general election, but then proceed to dodge this issue, it will be a baleful day for Britain.
James Lewis
Wembley, Middlesex
SIR – While I hesitate to disagree with Charles Moore, some of my French hunting friends would question his assertion that, on the whole, hunting is a custom of the English-speaking peoples.
There are more than 300 hunts in France, whose tradition claims descent from the court of Charlemagne, as does ours through William the Conqueror.
If Mr Moore hunted in France he would find many similarities, especially camerarderie, though not much to jump.
R. T. T.Bramley
Gillingham, Norfolk
McDo? Mais, non!
SIR – Over the past 20 years I have seen one of my favourite cultural institutions, the French café, decline and, were it not for the tourists, surely die.
In the 1990s cafés were packed with people talking, drinking, arguing, debating, laughing, flirting, eating or simply looking at life pass by.
But French lifestyles have now become more Anglo-Saxon, with less free time and “eating on the go”, “no smoking areas”, “alcohol regulations” and mobile phones.
The economic crunch has not helped but how sad to see young French people giving up their café culture for overcrowded McDo’s or Starbucks with texting rather than talking.
Edward Bryant
Paris
When sundials stop
SIR – Solstice comes from the Latin sol “sun” and sistere “to stand still”, and therefore means the (apparent) standing still of the sun.
Any observer, ancient or modern, will tell you that, in winter, the sun will seem to “stand still” for a good three days either side of the precise moment of solstice, and, so, there really is (and was) no need for worshippers or custodians at Stonehenge to worry about “synchronising sundials”, as you put it (Leading article, December 23). I’m sure those living in the less time-poor world of our ancestors would have agreed.
Frank Wilson
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Beating holiday boredom
SIR – Ennui – on Wii?
Ian McCutcheon
Carnforth, Lancashire
Perils of postal voting
SIR – Four years ago, a judge in a vote-rigging trial said the postal voting system is “wide open to fraud”.
Communication that I have just received from a parliamentary candidate, telling me “it is easier than ever to apply for a postal vote”, shows how true this remains. Enclosed was an easy to complete application form, which says that when the electoral services office receives the application they “check you are on the voters list and that your form is filled in correctly,” in which case “your name is added to the postal voters’ list”.
The potential for fraud is manifest, and where the male head of the household is regarded as the authority, the opportunity for coercion does not need spelling out.
In the privacy of a polling booth a person can cast a vote without relatives knowing how he or she voted, which is unlikely to be the case when voting at home. The forthcoming election is open to fraud or other subtle transgressions, most of which will be undetectable.
Allen Esterson
London W6
Lawyers not guilty
SIR – It is wrong to blame lawyers for the extent of personal injury litigation. Lawyers advise people of their rights: they do not create those rights. If an injured person does not have a legal entitlement his case will be dismissed by the judge. Damages are fixed to compensate for the injury, not to grant a windfall.
Any legal system which fails to inform those who are injured by the fault of others of the remedies available is a failing system. If society considers that redress is too easily available that is a matter for Parliament.
Dr Julian Critchlow
The Savage Club
London SW1
Below par peers
SIR – The House of Lords seems to be the only private members club where you are paid to belong rather than paying to enjoy the facilities (Letters, December 24).
All they need now is a golf course.
Roy Corlett
Southport, Lancashire
rench hunting friends would question his assertion that, on the whole, hunting is a custom of the English-speaking peoples.
There are more than 300 hunts in France, whose tradition claims descent from the court of Charlemagne, as does ours through William the Conqueror.
If Mr Moore hunted in France he would find many similarities, especially camerarderie, though not much to jump.
R. T. T.Bramley
Gillingham, Norfolk
McDo? Mais, non!
SIR – Over the past 20 years I have seen one of my favourite cultural institutions, the French café, decline and, were it not for the tourists, surely die.
In the 1990s cafés were packed with people talking, drinking, arguing, debating, laughing, flirting, eating or simply looking at life pass by.
But French lifestyles have now become more Anglo-Saxon, with less free time and “eating on the go”, “no smoking areas”, “alcohol regulations” and mobile phones.
The economic crunch has not helped but how sad to see young French people giving up their café culture for overcrowded McDo’s or Starbucks with texting rather than talking.
Edward Bryant
Paris
When sundials stop
SIR – Solstice comes from the Latin sol “sun” and sistere “to stand still”, and therefore means the (apparent) standing still of the sun.
Any observer, ancient or modern, will tell you that, in winter, the sun will seem to “stand still” for a good three days either side of the precise moment of solstice, and, so, there really is (and was) no need for worshippers or custodians at Stonehenge to worry about “synchronising sundials”, as you put it (Leading article, December 23). I’m sure those living in the less time-poor world of our ancestors would have agreed.
Frank Wilson
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Beating holiday boredom
SIR – Ennui – on Wii?
Ian McCutcheon
Carnforth, Lancashire
Perils of postal voting
SIR – Four years ago, a judge in a vote-rigging trial said the postal voting system is “wide open to fraud”.
Communication that I have just received from a parliamentary candidate, telling me “it is easier than ever to apply for a postal vote”, shows how true this remains. Enclosed was an easy to complete application form, which says that when the electoral services office receives the application they “check you are on the voters list and that your form is filled in correctly,” in which case “your name is added to the postal voters’ list”.
The potential for fraud is manifest, and where the male head of the household is regarded as the authority, the opportunity for coercion does not need spelling out.
In the privacy of a polling booth a person can cast a vote without relatives knowing how he or she voted, which is unlikely to be the case when voting at home. The forthcoming election is open to fraud or other subtle transgressions, most of which will be undetectable.
Allen Esterson
London W6
Lawyers not guilty
SIR – It is wrong to blame lawyers for the extent of personal injury litigation. Lawyers advise people of their rights: they do not create those rights. If an injured person does not have a legal entitlement his case will be dismissed by the judge. Damages are fixed to compensate for the injury, not to grant a windfall.
Any legal system which fails to inform those who are injured by the fault of others of the remedies available is a failing system. If society considers that redress is too easily available that is a matter for Parliament.
Dr Julian Critchlow
The Savage Club
London SW1
Below par peers
SIR – The House of Lords seems to be the only private members club where you are paid to belong rather than paying to enjoy the facilities (Letters, December 24).
All they need now is a golf course.
Roy Corlett
Southport, Lancashire

Well I must be off

best wishes John

Christmas Eve 2009

December 25, 2009 by johnblakey

Christmas Day 2009 25 December 2009

Well its Christmas Eve and its snowing, its fallen deep and thick and even. I hastily chuck out some rock salt accidentally scattering some over Kitten. She is delicately making her way back to the house pussyfooting through the snow. I don’t want to have to nurse the milkman or postman or the paperboy with a broken leg while we wait for the ambulance to make its way through the blizzard.
Our first visitor is unknown to us we spot him gingerly coming up the ramp to the kitchen door. He is bearing a large parcel! We rush to the door and open it for him. But our faces fall when we realise it is for next door, we smile and wish him a merry Christmas. Next coming up the snow covered drive is Steve the paperboy incongruous in a bright red pixie hat, it bobs up and down as he makes his way up the drive through the deep snow, well deep for us six inches!. He pops the papers through the letterbox and continues on his way.
As usual we fail to spot the milkman coming up the drive he does have a way of sneaking in and out as if he were invisible, but he has left us two bottles of milk and a dozen eggs.
Next is the Able and Cole man with our groceries, are we pleased to see him! If he had not come it would be sausage and egg and chips tonight for tea, instead of pork chop. Mary opens the door and he comes in and deposits it on the table his boots are covered in snow but it does not matter. He thanks us for the card and the chocolates we gave him last week. Says he can’t pick up any empty boxes his van is stuffed full of turkeys, wishes us a merry Christmas and is on his way.
Next is Marj, (Our friend Charles’s wife) she is bearing a card and a box of chocolates for us. Charles is poorly stricken with gout, on his knee, he would have it on his knee, why can’t he have it on his foot like anyone else? . We chant loudly “What did he eat?” Marj is slightly surprised not having considered that gout may have a dietary cause. We chant though the list “Asparagus tips? Spirits? Beer? Anchovies? Mustard? Spicy Food? Marj smiles at us and departs.
Mary wants to give the postman, our postman, the one who brought back Jarvis when he ran off, a box of chocolates. I don’t mind at all, but I am unsure as to how we can solve the practical difficulties. As the kitchen door has frosted glass we can’t see which postman it is, it may be any of a number of them. So if we open the door bearing a box of choccies and its the wrong one, what do we do? It would be churlish in the extreme to wave a box under the poor man’s nose and then not to give it to him. One the other hand there might be several different postmen before we get the right one, so we are going to go through quite a lot of chocolates! Tricky one this!

Postcards

The Castle St Briavels, Gloucestershire, England

The Castle St Briavels, Gloucestershire, England

The Smallest house in Great Britain, Conway, Conwy, Wales

The Smallest house in Great Britain, Conway, Conwy, Wales

Multiview of Conway, Conwy, Wales

Multiview of Conway, Conwy, Wales

The Pier and Promenade, Colwyn, Bay, Clwyd, Wales

The Pier and Promenade, Colwyn, Bay, Clwyd, Wales

Giant Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) Fairbourne Butterfly Safari Dolgellau, Gwynedd, Wales

Giant Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) Fairbourne Butterfly Safari Dolgellau, Gwynedd, Wales

Postcrossing card from China: Rocky cave Temple, Gongyi, China

CN 143571

Postcrossing card from Russia, Very twee looking Kitten, Russia

RU 98010

Obituary: Manto Tshabalala-Msimang: former South African Health Minister

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa’s Health Minister between 1999 and 2008, was one of the most controversial and vilified politicians of the past decade. Her advocacy of eating beetroot and garlic in preference to taking drugs to fight the HIV virus would have been contentious in any country. But it was especially so in South Africa, where today about 5.5 million people live with the virus — the highest number in any single country. A study last year suggested that 300,000 people had died prematurely in South Africa between 2000 and 2005 as a result of the delay in rolling out antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to people with HIV.
Her critics, who mockingly dubbed her “Dr Beetroot”, held her and President Thabo Mbeki, whose scepticism about the causal link between HIV and Aids she echoed, responsible.
As so often happens with controversialists, Tshabalala-Msimang’s supporters maintain that her views were misrepresented. They say she never believed that herbs and vegetables were a substitute for ARVs but that they were essential to the good nutrition needed to fight the virus. Her concern was both about the possible toxic side-effects of Aids medications and that their high cost would prevent the fulfilment of other public health goals. However, her own statements were self-contradictory, and she repeatedly declined in interviews to acknowledge that HIV causes Aids. In 2006 her stance produced an unprecedented call from more than 60 international medical experts for President Mbeki to sack his Health Minister — advice he declined to accept.
While many South Africans were dismayed by Tshabalala-Msimang’s views and policies, the same people often respected her for her credentials in the liberation struggle. Born in Durban in 1940, she was ordered to go into exile by the African National Congress (ANC) at the age of 22 for an education. She was one of a group of 27 young cadres who had been identified as part of a future governing class. She was to spent the next 28 years abroad.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6966733.ece

Letters:

Guardian:

Robin McKie says the Australian drought sent food prices soaring (“Why Britain faces a bleak future of food shortages”, Science). However, the World Bank attributed 70% of the rise to the use of grain for vehicle fuel ethanol.
Every means will certainly be needed to raise cereal yields whose annual increase has dropped from over 2% to around 1%, but if fertiliser and chemical use are to be curtailed, the suggestion that inefficient small farms should be incorporated into larger units needs to be treated with caution. The Future of Food TV series (BBC2) showed the vulnerability of current large-scale methods using, as they do, five calories of fossil fuel energy to produce one calorie of food energy. The only ray of hope was shown by a holding at San Antonio, Cuba, where one calorie of mostly human energy managed to produce five calories of food on a very intensive mixed crop and livestock holding
It is only in western society that this seems remarkable. Hanoi, Calcutta, Shanghai and Caracas all produce a high proportion of their food from adjacent, intensively small-scale farmed land. They may be in better shape to face the predicted perfect storm in food supply than our cities fed from distant large farms.
John Watson
Totnes, Devon
■ The science of genetics is not the only answer to food shortages – there is also the science of ecology (as the planting of the nettles around wheat fields exemplifies), but this requires work on the relation of farm products to each other, both in space (eg minimising spread of disease) and in time (as in crop succession or rotation). The social sciences also are involved, with the inevitable change in farm economics and the possibility of more labour-intensive farming.
Further input from social sciences may bear upon whether there should be rationing by price or by more interventionist methods. This, in turn, involves the science of nutrition. And we can learn not only from science, but also from history, not least that of the war of 1939-45.
Dr Jeffrey Boss
Stroud, Glos
■ Robin McKie mentions, more in passing than in alarm, that the UK’s population is predicted to rise to 75 million in the next 40 years. The consequences of such a rise during the lead up to a period of serious world food shortages needs to be understood. This is an increase of 25% in our population. Not only is this an enormous extra number of people to feed, but it also means that a large additional area of farmland will be lost under urban development. We already lose roughly a moderately sized English county every decade.
There seems to be a belief that population increase is outside of the influence of policy, but this is nonsense. Our health, education and immigration policies all have an effect, both direct and indirect, on the numbers of unwanted pregnancies, on how the choices of how many children to have are made, and on the net balance of migration.
We can and should take population into account. Without this, pontificating about food shortages is hypocritical.
Chris Padley
Market Rasen, Lincs
■ A whole page on the coming food crisis(“Why Britain faces a bleak future of food shortages”, 13 Dec), and the only mention of population growth is the bald statement that in 40 years it will “leap… from 6.8 billion to 9 billion”, as if it was written in stone. In fact, it could be anything between 7.6 billion and 11 billion, depending on the actions we take between now and then, since the 9 billion is only the middle of three projections by the UN Population Fund.
Did any of your editorial staff watch David Attenborough’s documentary on population in the Horizon series last Tuesday, and if so, why doesn’t this article make any mention of the need to bring down the reproductive rate?
Roger Plenty
Stroud, Glos

Sir, It is possible that William Shakespeare did have some leanings towards the Church of Rome if his family background is investigated (report, Dec 22). According to Michael Wood, in his In Search of Shakespeare (2003), he places William’s grandfather Richard as bailiff of this church in 1534 when it was known as the Priory of St Leonard, Wroxall. A great aunt of William, Isabella Shakespeare, was prioress from 1501 and an aunt named Joanna Shakespeare was sub-prioress in 1534.
After the destruction of the priory at Wroxall in 1535 the Lady Chapel was converted to the Church of St Leonard parish. There is no recording of a bishop visiting from that time onwards. Wroxall was and still is a small isolated village and there was nothing to prevent secret Roman Catholic services being conducted here. The estate became known as Wroxall Abbey in 1538 and the church renamed Wren’s Chapel in 2001 after one of its famous owners Sir Christopher Wren. It was consecrated a cathedral this year and the Anglican Order of St Leonard established.
The Very Rev Dr Anthony J. Carr
Wren’s Cathedral, Wroxall Abbey, Warks
Sir, The likelihood that Shakespeare spent time in Italy would seem to reinforce the theory that the plays attributed to him were actually written by Christopher Marlowe.
Marlowe, so goes the theory, wasn’t murdered in Deptford but another body was substituted and he fled to Italy, having been exposed as a spy. If indeed Shakespeare was in Italy, what more natural than that Marlowe met him and persuaded him to publish and produce Marlowe’s plays under Shakespeare’s name?
It must be remembered that whereas Shakespeare left school at 14, Marlowe was a Cambridge graduate. Which of them would be more likely to write such erudite, original and literary plays? And many of them are set in Italy, and the theme of banishment occurs often.
J. H. D. Gibson
Colwall, Worcs
Sir, It is a pity that you had no more space for the photograph of the entry on Arthur Stratford (pictured). The next line records his ordination, on November 29, 1586.
Michael Hodgetts
Editor, Midland Catholic History

Well I must be off

best wishes John

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2009 by johnblakey

Christmas Eve 2009 24 December 2009

Wrap up parcels and I’ll be glad when this Christmas is all over. The snow still lies, as white and beautiful as ever. But I don’t feel particularly keen to trudge through it to post my parcels and cards perhaps tomorrow will do?
Sharland pops over with the kids who are a little wild, and Jarvis of course. Her daughter, Poots is not Jarvis’ friend. Not that Jarvis cares. Jarvis managed to penetrate the security of Poots bedroom and eat two, not one but two, Cadburies chocolate oranges, that Poots had bought for her friends at Christmas. Poots is not pleased. He also while here managed to corner Puddy, who thankfully did not run but shelved herself in a bookcase and Jarvis retreated.
When they are gone Kitten swaggers out as usual but Puddy takes hours before she still nervous appears. New Dog has gone to family in the Isle of Man! Serves us right for not making up our mind I suppose.
I put the Goon show MP3 files on my phone, they seem a lot smaller than the others but play just as well. Still haven’t got round to doing my email on it yet, or exploring any of the other of its delightful possibilities yes, but I will try.
I put a pheasant on for tea, with sweet potato, carrots, leek and fennel, wrapped in bacon with garlic, it simmers in the slow cooker all day long smelling quite delightful I am sure it will be delicious.
We watch An Father Came Too, Another James Robertson Justice, Lesley Philips, Stanley Baxter vehicle. Young couple buy old house to get away from wife’s over-domineering father, lots of slapstick, and great fun. The love interest Sally Smith tries hard but is drowned by the others. A host of minor characters all acting their socks off, delightful.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057055/

Postcards

Llandudno, Wales

Llandudno, Wales

Snowdon and Afon Gwryd, Wales

Snowdon and Afon Gwryd, Wales

Rhaeadr Ewynnol: Swallow Falls, River Liugwy, Betws-y-Coed, Conwy, Wales

Rhaeadr Ewynnol: Swallow Falls, River Liugwy, Betws-y-Coed, Conwy, Wales

Snowdon massif from Fachwen, Wales

Snowdon massif from Fachwen, Wales

Waterfalls of North Wales: Dyserth, Swallow Falls, Nant Mill, Aber falls

Waterfalls of North Wales: Dyserth, Swallow Falls, Nant Mill, Aber falls

L’Hotel de Ville, Paris, France

Servas Jessica and Louise dec 2009.jpg

Postcrossing: Helsink,i Finland

FI 707007

Postcrossing card from Finland:Lovely old bench. Makes you wonder who sat there what they did and who they were and what they thought.

FI 703498

Postcard from India: Mattupatty, Munnar, Keraka, India

IN 10227

Obituary: Alfred Hrdlicka: artist

Alfred Hrdlicka was one of the most prominent postwar Austrian artists, although there was not much competition for that title. He continued to carve large blocks of hard stone long after every other serious sculptor had changed to other materials.
“The point of stone sculpture,” he once said, “is to transform lifeless material into flesh. In no other artistic medium is the raw material changed so directly into art.”
As a painter and graphic artist he carried on the longstanding figurative, politically inspired Expressionist tradition after everyone else had turned either to abstraction or — a Viennese peculiarity — Magic Realism. Hrdlicka’s opposition to abstraction and the intellectual pretentions of artists such as Josef Beuys was largely the result of his political convictions. For him, art that was not totally engaged with the human condition was merely decorative. It could not be taken seriously. He was not simply an anti-Fascist, anti-capitalist and communist, he was, as he once announced, “the last Stalinist”. However, he was, as so often, drunk at the time and always had a need to provoke and irritate.
Hrdlicka was born in Vienna in 1928, ten years before the Anschluss, which incorporated Austria into the German Reich. In spite of the general rejoicing then, there was some resistance and it was concentrated in Rotes Wien (Red Vienna), the working-class districts and social housing projects of the city. Hrdlicka’s father was a trade union activist and communist, whom he often helped to distribute political propaganda. Under Nazi rule the father spent time in prison as a political prisoner and as a forced labourer with the Todt Organisation. Hrdlicka’s older brother was killed fighting on the Russian front, while Hrdlicka himself managed to go underground and avoid conscription. A friend, who hid him at his home, arranged for him to be apprenticed as a dental technician. In 1945 Hrdlicka joined the Communist Party together with countless other Viennese artists and intellectuals, including his friend Georg Eisler, the painter and son of the composer Hans Eisler. Hrdlicka remained an informal member of the party until the end of his life, although he did claim to have lost his party card during the Hungarian uprising.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6966721.ece

Letters:

Guardian:

The report of the 16 NGOs (Help end Gaza blockade, aid groups urge EU, 22 December) castigates Israel for banning the import into Gaza of materials urgently needed for reconstruction. Israel has certainly been holding back on sending materials like cement that can be used by the Hamas regime for extending its military infrastructure, but it was reported in July that Israel did authorise the import to Gaza of hundreds of tonnes of cement and building materials for construction projects specifically supported by the UN.
Israel controls only about two-thirds of Gaza’s border; the remaining third is its border with Egypt. Building materials could be imported into Gaza at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, if Egypt were willing to allow it. However, Egypt exercises just as severe a blockade as Israel. A great deal of material, including weaponry, is smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Egypt was recently reported to be erecting a metal wall in an attempt to prevent this.
Even given Israel’s restrictions, it seems that a considerable range of goods routinely enters, including food, medical supplies, agricultural materials and commercial and domestic fuel. Figures from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) show that the total amount of materials transferred into the Gaza strip from Israel from the beginning of 2009 was some 28,500 truckloads, compared with 26,838 truckloads during 2008.
The situation in Gaza is certainly far from satisfactory, but it is also far from black and white. The only real hope lies in some softening of Hamas’s opposition to Israel’s right to exist, to say nothing of its opposition to its rival Fatah, thus leading the way to the two-state solution.
Neville Teller
Edgware, Middlesex
• Congratulations to Kate Allen of Amnesty, and to the other aid organisations, for drawing world attention to the continuing problems in Gaza. As she and other aid workers will know, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 in an effort to promote local autonomy and peaceful coexistence. Since then, and particularly since the election of Hamas the next year, more than 8,000 rockets have been launched into Israeli civilian areas and coastal towns, killing, maiming and traumatising a generation of Israeli children, among others. I know that Ms Allen will find this just as appalling as the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, who are affected by Israel’s efforts to stop arms being smuggled into Gaza, and who are the indirect victims of the policies of their elected leaders. I know too that Israel would welcome her contribution in finding a way to bring an end to the misery of both Palestinians and Israelis in the area.
Stephen Shaw
London
• Insofar as it represents an unequivocal call by the leader of a major political party for the end of the Gaza siege, Nick Clegg’s article (Lift the Gaza blockade, 22 December) is welcome. But it utterly fails to address the root causes of the problem. The crucial question is, “What is Israel’s fundamental aim which, to them, justifies such inhumane behaviour?” If its conduct is indeed contrary to Israel’s own best interests then why cannot Israel see that too? It seems more likely that Israeli actions actually do serve Israel’s fundamental objectives, which are succinctly summed up in Kimmerling’s term “politicide” – the destruction of a people – the Palestinians. If that is so, it will only be when the governments of the world acknowledge Israel’s primitive and nationalistic objectives that they will be able to generate sufficient force to bring Israel back into a world that recognises fundamental human rights and international law.
David E Pegg
York
• Jimmy Carter is undoubtedly right in his assessments for peace in the Middle East (Gaza must be rebuilt now, 19 December). His convoluted plan, however, will lead nowhere until Arabia comes to terms with the reality that Israel has the right to exist. This is the priority. Jerusalem has made many concessions, with the Palestinians giving nothing in return. Using the settlements as a cause for stagnation is a micro-viewing of the situation.
The 2005 Gaza withdrawal proves that the settlements are no obstacle to peace. Israel relinquished the strip in the hope Hamas would build on this retreat, a hope shattered by 8,000 rockets triggering the self-defence Cast Lead operation. The return of Sinai to Egypt reinforces the idea that territory held is no hindrance to peace. The real hurdle Carter must surmount is that the Palestinians must abrogate all charters calling for the annihilation of Israel. Good luck, Jimmy.
A Soudry
Glasgow

I have recommended that people stay put at Christmas for the last few years (Don’t blame the system for winter travel chaos. Stay put, 23 December). Apart from the fact that the weather is often at its worst, it is also the season of flu and colds – not a time to be travelling around spreading germs! Christmas was designed to fit in with the winter solstice and I can understand people wanting a jolly, but why not celebrate with friends and neighbours nearby? The best time for get-togethers with far-flung family would be the summer solstice. We should start a campaign.
Jill Morley
Taunton, Somerset
• It was bound to happen. Providence has seen to it that “of all the places gridlocked by the sudden snowfall … this was probably the worst” (Report, 23 December): Basingstoke, home to the AA.
Benedict Birnberg
London
• Rageh Omaar omits Osama bin Laden’s great economic legacy (Icons of the decade, G2, 22 December). As Steve Bell and the Guardian have so graphically shown, at every port, airport and station and at every major sports and cultural event all over the world, there is now an army of security staff. Without this massive job creation scheme, the current recession would have been even deeper.
Jonathan Harris
Gorran, Cornwall
• Is it now incriminating to own a copy of Charles Jencks’s book, Iconic Building. It has drawings by Madelon Vriesendorp (Letters, 22 December).
Adrian Smith
Leeds
• Yesterday’s post arrived at 11.30am, with a Christmas card bearing the franked time of 3.14am the same day – and a second-class stamp. Is this a record?
Caroline Welch
London

David Clark incorrectly describes the City of London’s work with the homelessness charity Broadway to help “rough sleepers” (This harassment of people sleeping rough is unacceptable, 18 December). We haven’t shied away from seeking tough solutions to a difficult problem, which has included waking homeless people to ask if they’d like help finding alternative accommodation, or to wash down the (sometimes human waste-soiled) areas where they have been sleeping. Several weeks’ warning is given, as is the offer of a warm bed in a safe environment.
Over the last 18 months, we have helped move over 300 homeless people off the streets, into sheltered accommodation. Sleeping rough is not a lifestyle choice – the vast majority want to find a way out. Arguing that homeless people should be left alone to live where they want sidesteps the harsh truth that it can often shorten their lives. The City of London will not stand by and let this happen.
Billy Dove
Chairman, community and children’s services committee, City of London
• There are next to no emergency hostel bed spaces for young people in London. We are finding in our day centre based in Euston that unless you have a connection with the local borough you will not be housed. This is true of Centrepoint emergency hostels in Westminster, which are forced to retain the spaces for Westminster clients due to borough funding of hostels. Yet many hostel beds in boroughs throughout London are lying vacant. This strategy employed by most boroughs takes no account of the transient nature of young people seeking work, education or starting a new life for themselves in another borough or those forced to move to London.
We are turning away 18-year-olds whose only alternative is to sleep rough or access temporary cold weather shelters where available. Isn’t it time that government and local authorities invested in a strategy that ensured that emergency provision was available for young people on a pan-London basis?
Shelagh O’Connor

Last year it was the terror of bombs, now it is the desolation of a future destroyed (Childhood in ruins, G2, 17 December). The physical injuries suffered by the people of Gaza are healing, to varying degrees, but, as the internationally respected Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) reports, the psychological damage remains as raw as ever. The siege of Gaza continues, denying the citizens not just daily necessities, but the means to rebuild their shattered infrastructure and, in particular, their houses.
The British Shalom Salaam Trust provides regular help to GCMHP to carry out its therapeutic work. But we know that if a peace process is ever to get started, and to stand any chance of success, the people of Gaza will need medical and educational resources on a massive scale to rebuild lives and hopes.
Dr Gill Yudkin
Chair, British Shalom Salaam Trust
• Thank you for the article about the children in Gaza. I am sorry, however, that, along with the rest of the UK national media, you have given no coverage to the convoy of about 80 UK vehicles that is currently travelling across Turkey, along with over 100 other vehicles, to take humanitarian goods to the people of Gaza. I have helped to raise funds for the York ambulance and, as a retired teacher, I have made sure that as well as medical supplies the ambulance has paper, pencils and crayons for the children of Gaza to help them express their feelings, so well explained in your article. For many years I worked with refugee children in east London and now I support asylum seeking families in Yorkshire. These children in the UK are often traumatised enough. How much worse for the children in Gaza?
Janice Gupta Gwilliam
Norton, North Yorkshire
• You report that Gazan children suffer from bedwetting, night terrors, depression, hyperactivity and aggression. I do not recall that during the years of missile attacks (10,000 in eight years) on Sderot and the surrounding areas that you reported so widely on the Israeli kids’ bedwetting, night terrors, depression, hyperactivity and aggression.
Joseph Millis
London
• David Latner (Letters, 16 December) attempts to justify Israeli attacks on Palestinians by drawing parallels with conflicts involving British forces. While his analogy between the Palestinians and Nazi Germany is preposterous, that with recent British behaviour in Ireland is mistaken but instructive. Far from acting like the Israeli Defence Force, British forces have not responded to IRA attacks by razing Dundalk or invading the Irish Republic. And by acknowledging the grievances of the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland, the UK government began the process leading to peace. The Israelis and their supporters would do well to learn from this example.
Chris Theobald
Edinburgh

Get Together and Southwark Circle sound like excellent initiatives and good additions to the variety of social support that isolated people need (The perfect gift? How about an end to loneliness – and not just at Christmas, 23 December) . The so-called “old approach” – “befriending” – is still alive and well, however. Schemes cater for older people who are less mobile and can no longer offer practical skills.
There is nothing random about the way an older person and volunteer befriender are matched. There is a recognised process that is key to the success of the relationship. Innovation in our sector is thriving, with small voluntary groups and national organisations responding to local needs, piloting models ranging from traditional one-to-one “home visits” to regular telephone calls, telephone book clubs to end-of-life befriending.
Befriending services for older people are free, to make sure those in need can use them. Schemes often face complex and time-consuming procedures in finding funding. Waiting lists are often because of a scheme’s success – many lack management capacity to train and support all the willing volunteers.
The VitalLinks online directory of such schemes, to be published in the spring, will make finding them easier and help more older people re-establish social networks and continue to be active citizens.
Kathleen Gillett
VitalLinks co-ordinator, Counsel and Care
• Jonathan Freedland highlights a profound problem – loneliness – which by definition is hidden from us and easy to ignore. In 2010 we should put the tackling of this ill at the top of our action list. Access is key, whether that be reaching the three in five older people who have not gone near the internet, or moving beyond free bus passes to design ways for people to get around more easily. Above all, people want to contribute whatever their age, through work, community or family. If we take that away we are all sunk. Living is about giving.
Lynne Berry WRVS, Paul Cann Age Concern Oxfordshire, Stephen Burke Counsel and Care, Janet Morrison Independent Age

Independent:

I was interested in the article about how Jesus Christ was displaced in the Nazi Christmas and replaced with Nazi symbols because Jesus Christ was a Jew (report, 21 December).
As I read, fascinated at the horrible process, the question arose in my mind, how has Christ become displaced in the UK? I went into my local shops in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, and asked in three successive shops for nativity scene Christmas cards, and although all three shops had hundreds of different scenes, not one had a nativity scene.
If Britain is a Christian country, why is Jesus Christ’s presence not experienced in the nation? Why is Jesus Christ missing from Christmas cards? Why is there prejudice against the symbol of Christianity, the cross? What value do we place on Christ at Christmas?
Margaret Knight
Rickmansworth
How bizarre that Garrison Keillor complains of Unitarians ruining Christmas by not reciting a creed (Opinion, Dominic Lawson, 22 December). The point about creeds is that, when religion is truly and deeply believed, they are apt to lead to burning at the stake or beheading (Servetus in 1553, Gentile in 1566).
These are not procedures most people associate with Christmas. Unitarians place toleration above belief, since anyone can be sure of behaving in the gospel spirit, but no one can be sure of holding the true faith. Moreover, the early Church tolerated a wide divergence of belief.
The Emperor Theodosius may have found that the imposition of one faith in 381 improved the governability of the Roman Empire, but his action destroyed the essential nature of faith, that it is something intimately and personally believed and accepted. In the words of a great Englishman, William Chillingworth, writing in 1636, “Nothing is more against religion than to force religion”.
Christopher Walker
London W14
Children locked up by UK authorities
I agree with Mary Dejevsky (“The plight of innocent children”, 15 December) that immigration policy impacts on adults as well as children.
The report of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture of the Council of Europe on its November 2008 visit to Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC) concluded: “The CPT is concerned by the rise in the number of persons being detained for lengthy periods in IRCs; in certain cases, it would appear that there was little prospect of the persons concerned being sent back to their countries of origin.
“Continuing to hold a person in immigration detention in such circumstances would appear to be a disproportionate measure, and the indefinite nature of detention could lead to a deterioration in mental health. The CPT would appreciate the comments of the United Kingdom authorities on this matter.”
But Ms Dejevsky is wide of the mark when she states that that a system without detention would be “essentially an open-borders policy”. Restrictions on visas and the exporting of border controls by the UK and EU (Frontex) ensure it is impossible for many would-be asylum seekers and economic migrants to get into the UK, legally or illegally.
We need regularisation programmes to accept the undocumented migrants who have a life here already and cannot or will not be deported. Let us not pay companies to make private profit out of personal misery in executing a policy that is inhumane and does not work.
Bill MacKeith
Oxford
The detention of children in the UK’s “immigration removal centres” is having a devastating impact upon their mental and physical wellbeing.
Children become frightened and confused; many regress developmentally; studies suggest that all develop worryingly high levels of the symptoms of major depression and anxiety and develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Not only have the centres neglected to ensure many of the children are given their age-appropriate immunisations, but most of the children have reported new health problems or have suffered the exacerbation of existing ones.
All parents surveyed by Bail for Immigration Detainees note the traumatic effects continue long after the children are released. One young former detainee of Yarl’s Wood, for instance, is having psychological care to counter the trauma he experienced; another young boy formerly detained suffers nightmares and is too scared to leave his mother’s side for fear he will be returned to detention. These are vulnerable children, not criminals. How can any civilised society justify such cruel mistreatment?
Sarah Barnes,
Project Co-ordinator, Faith Matters
London, WC1
John Rebecchi (letters, 18 December) states that “the parents of these children have probably put them through quite frightening ordeals just in getting them to the UK”. If this was the case, then surely incarceration would present only further risk to their physical and mental health?
Many of the children detained in “prison-like” surroundings were born in the UK to a parent or parents who fled persecution in their home country. If they applied for asylum on entering the UK, it may take up to 10 years or more before their cases are heard. While waiting, they got on with their lives, became part of a community, and produced children.
Years later, the agents of the Home Office descend upon the family in a dawn raid, transport them in closed vans, and incarcerate them in a removal centre. Many of these children have known no other life than that in which they were brought up in the UK.
The incarceration of these innocents is no less reprehensible than the imprisonment of the children of native-born UK citizens would be. To suggest otherwise is to imply they are in some way less deserving of our concern and compassion.
David Butler
Bedford
We are greatly encouraged by your leading article in support of the recent high-profile calls to end child detention for immigration purposes (14 December), and are urging the Government to reconsider this policy without delay.
Further to the mounting and irrefutable evidence that detention seriously damages children’s mental and physical wellbeing, we were appalled that the children at Yarl’s Wood detention centre were also denied the small joy of receiving Christmas gifts this month. This is no way to treat children who have committed no crime, and many of whom have come to our country in need of protection from human rights abuses. It is to the shame of all of us that our government continues to lock up children.
Donna Covey
Chief Executive, Refugee Council
London SW9
No Eurostars in our eyes
Both Eurostar (which operates the trains) and Eurotunnel (which operates the tunnel) were ill-prepared to handle last weekend’s emergency. But their fire-safety strategy is in question too. After the last major fire in 2008, Eurotunnel is developing a new fire-safety strategy based on moving freight train carriages to an “extinguishing area” for sprinklers to douse the fire.
If the trains can’t move (for up to 16 hours), this strategy is a nonsense. Fires can start and spread rapidly, even in sub-zero temperatures.
David P Sugden
Chairman, Passive Fire Protection Federation,
Bordon, Hampshire
I have just heard a manager from Eurostar thank inconvenienced travellers for their patience while stranded in queues or worse. What else could they do? Doesn’t he know that taking a photograph or making an impatient complaint about atrocious service at an airport or station is the easiest way to get arrested under spurious anti-terrorism and anti-social behaviour laws?
Andrew Calvert
Ruislip, Middlesex
Your alarmist leading article (21 December) began with the headline, “Eurostar: not just a mechanical breakdown”. Indeed not; that’s because it was a purely electrical breakdown.
Mike Bellion
Sedbergh, Cumbria
Brooding on the back-burner of life
Your correspondents bemoaning their luck at having birthdays on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day know nothing of the utter devastation that having your birthday on Christmas Eve can bring. We are the truly overlooked, bypassed and ignored.
As a group, we have to endure watching our families spending our Christmas Eve birthdays preparing for the “big day” and sending one card and one present to cover both days because money is tight during the festive period. Having your present wrapped in Christmas paper and knowing your uninspiring card was purchased from a tiny selection because the main display was celebrating someone else’s birthday can be hard to take.
It is amazing that we have not become embittered by this cruel twist of fate and consumed by the knowledge that, after this horrendous slight, we now have 12 months to wait before we are, again, thoughtlessly placed on life’s “back-burner” as the rest of you prepare for Christmas Day.
This festive season, as you sit down to your turkey dinner, spare a thought for those whose birthday was the day before, and nobody noticed.
Steve Mackinder
Denver, Norfolk
Postal-vote system wide open to fraud
Four years ago, a judge in a vote-rigging trial said the postal-voting system is “wide open to fraud”.
A communication I have just received from a parliamentary candidate telling me, “It is easier than ever to apply for a postal vote” shows how true this remains. Enclosed was an easy-to-complete application form, on the back of which it says that when the Electoral Services office receives the application they “check you are on the voters list and that your form is filled in correctly”, in which case “your name is added to the postal voters list”.
The potential for fraud with the present system is manifest and, in the case of communities where the male head of the household is regarded as the authority, the opportunity for direct or indirect coercion should not need spelling out. In the privacy of a polling booth, a person can cast a vote without relatives knowing how he or she voted, which obviously is unlikely to be the case when voting at home.
In short, the forthcoming general election is wide open to fraud or other more subtle transgressions, most of which will be virtually undetectable.
Allen Esterson
London W6
More hot air
Brian Lile’s letter (22 December) reminded me of a weather forecaster’s comment on breakfast TV this year: “It will be blustery in terms of the wind.”
Doug Meredith
Manchester
Tory lynch law
If the Conservative Party is to form the next government, we have to hope that Chris Grayling’s rabble-rousing in the wake of the Munir Hussain case (report, 23 December) is no more than pre-electoral posturing. If he does enact measures that legitimise the running down and beating nearly to death of intruders who have left the premises and no longer pose a threat he will simply be giving a licence to vigilantism and lynch-mob rule. The action of the party of law and order?
Jonathan Wallace
Newcastle upon Tyne
One church, one view
Dr Andrew Smith (letters, 23 December) assumes that religious paintings were painted by religious artists, and that they spoke to people’s deepest feelings. Yet how can we ignore the role played by the church in enforcing religious orthodoxy and commissioning works of art? Whoever pays the piper can name their tune. In the case of the endless morbid Pietas and crucifixions, that tune was the only one which an immensely powerful church wanted anyone to hear.
Peter McKenna
Liverpool
On thin ice
I enjoy the Alex James column and wholeheartedly share in his delight at the beauty of the countryside in winter, but I was shocked that he encouraged his dog to venture on to a frozen lake, because it “looked sufficiently solid to walk on” (Rural Notebook, 23 December). Last winter, several dogs in this area suffered horrific deaths when they fell into icy ponds while their traumatised owners looked on helplessly. If you would not send your child on to the ice, do not send your dog.
Isla Donald
Farnham, Surrey
Scott’s real goals
Jonathan Brown’s report (18 December) claims Captain Scott’s goal in reaching the South Pole was “to beat his rival Roald Amundsen”. The real goals of his expedition were exploration and science. Amundsen turned south to race Scott to the South Pole only after finding he had been beaten to the North Pole. This sudden challenge may have “disconcerted” Scott’s expedition, but was certainly not its original motivating force.
Zoe Young
London W2

Times:

Sir, “Christmas Day is just an odd sort of Sunday.” Perhaps this is the case for Paul Simons (Thunderer, Dec 22). However, those of us that have decided to spend our careers working in retail truly value the two (yes, two, if we are lucky) days off work that we get at this time of year.
While I admit that weekend working does permit two days off during the week, the thought of having to commit my staff and myself to opening more days over Christmas is, quite frankly, selfish. Mr Simons has plenty of time to shop. Most large companies write it into their contracts that staff must be commited to working the hours that suit the needs of the business. Mr Simons should stop quoting from history books and ask staff their opinions first.
Come on, Mr Simons, do your shopping at normal times and let us keep the few days off we get each year, which depending on the size of the store is only on Christmas Day.
Karl Saxon
Cherry Hinton, Cambs

Chris Grounds wrote:
Let’s hope that all those stationary office employees came to life during their lunch hour, or they would’nt have been able to do much in the way of shopping.
December 24, 2009 12:01 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (1)
Report Abuse
Permalink

stanley cohen wrote:
When I worked in Harrow close to 6,000 Kodak and 4,000 Stationary Office employees, I asked the manager of the local Co-op Dept Store in Wealdstone High Street why he closed for the lunch hour. He replied that it gave his staff an opportunity to do their shopping.

Sir, I have followed Matthew Parris’s article (Opinion, Dec 19) on his love of Africa and Lord Luce’s letter (Dec 22) with much interest.
What both unfortunately failed to mention was the appreciation and high esteem that the Colonial Service received from the local population. In 1962, two years after Nigeria had been granted independence, my father (then in the Nigeria Police) and I were in the bush chatting to some Nigerians when one commented: “This independence is a fine thing, but when is the district commissioner coming back?”
That spoke volumes for their reaction to the local politicians, and that sentiment is probably still valid today.
Ian Proud
London W5
Peter Cressall wrote:
Amongst all the bashing of colonialism, one should not forget that in the vast majority of cases the British (I cannot say the same for the Belgians) brought peace, order and a better life than before to the inhabitants of their colonies. With independence, the people exchanged one set of masters for another, and invariably the new lot were very much worse than the old.
December 23, 2009 8:13 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (4)
Report Abuse
Permalink

stanley cohen wrote:
I laughed so loudly at this piece of rose-tinted nostalgia that I almost forgot to touch my forelock.

Sir, The Rev Tim Jones has, perhaps rather clumsily, raised an interesting moral issue (“Help yourselves: shoplifting is better than mugging, says vicar”, Dec 22). Is there any difference between helping yourself to a turkey from, say, Tesco, or, in the case of Mr Jones’s loudly critical Conservative MP, Anne McIntosh, £5,000 of taxpayers’ money for her garden?
Eric Campbell
Harrogate, N Yorks

Elizabeth Payne wrote:
FROM IAN PAYNE [WALSALL] ;

I thought they were a load of Turkey’s in Palrliament !!!!
December 23, 2009 6:13 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (2)
Report Abuse
Permalink

stanley cohen wrote:
Do you mean what’s the legal difference between kleptomania and embezzlement?
In my experience the former tends to be the subject of more sympathetic understanding whereas the latter is frowned upon as taking advantage of a system in the absence of awareness of its victims.

Sir, Yesterday, with only two more shopping days before Christmas, a bank cash machine retained my bank card without giving me any cash and my bank tells me that I will not receive a new card until after Christmas. Fortunately, I still have a cheque book (letters, Dec 22).
Cheque mate?
Peter Sergeant
Loughborough, Leics

Peter Cressall wrote:
But if you only have one egg, Robert?
December 23, 2009 9:49 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

robert seaford wrote:
Word to the wise – never put all yr eggs in one basket (or bank)
December 23, 2009 9:31 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Peter Cressall wrote:
The banks seem to forget that the money belongs to the holder of the account. A cheque is merely an instruction to the bank to pay a certain sum. I fail to see how they will be able to refuse to carry out these instructions.
December 23, 2009 8:07 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (2)
Report Abuse
Permalink

stanley cohen wrote:
Ah, but will they honour your cheque if you fail to produce a supporting Cheque Card, after all, none of them recognises us anymore, do they?

Sir, Why is everyone calling this cold spell the “big freeze” (“Big freeze blights Christmas getaway”, Dec 22)? I can remember when it was called “winter”.
Stuart McAlpine
Edinburgh

Redmond McDonagh wrote:
And in Edinburgh the “little freeze” is called “summe

Telegraph:

SIR – You are right (Leading article, December 22) to be critical of peers who have claimed excessive “expenses” for the amount they contribute to the House.
It is important, however, that critics of the proposed £200-a-day attendance allowance should be aware that this would replace not only the present daily expense allowance but also the secretarial and office expenses allowance.

At present, peers may claim that allowance each day that they attend the House, and for up to 40 days in recesses.
For some years now, my annual claims for all expenses (attending 60 or 70 days a year) have been less than I pay my part-time secretary. Under the proposed system I, and others like me, would be even more out of pocket.
The prime trouble in my House is the same as that in the Commons: not the regulations, nor the constitution, but some of the people who have become members.
Lord Tebbit
London SW1
SIR – The best way to strengthen the Lords’ powers of legislative scrutiny, while solving the problem of remuneration, is to make the Upper House fully elected.
This would give it a democratic mandate and prevent governments from filling it with cronies. The alternative-vote system, used in London mayoral elections, would ensure a new chamber was no carbon copy of the Commons.
Matt Showering
Bristol
SIR – You remark that the House of Lords lacks the legitimacy bestowed upon the Commons by its electoral mandate. Why so? Because the House, still in small part hereditary, is for the most part an appointed upper chamber.
No one wants an appointed House of Lords – appointed, that is, by the executive, since this is to undermine its role as a branch of the legislature to curb the power of the executive.
David Cameron must be steered away from his present solution of an elected upper chamber. John Major wisely realised that an elected upper chamber would result in gridlock, as the Commons is too jealous of its own authority.
At the time of the eviction of most of the hereditaries in 1999, an opinion poll showed most of the electorate wanted no change in the composition of the Lords without knowing that something better could take its place. Nothing of the kind has been provided.
The only answer is to restore the hereditaries. The shadow cabinet should seek a debate in the Lords for that end.
I now notice the venality of new peers, fiddling their expenses and eager to charge money to the pressure groups they represent. I have yet to hear of any hereditary peer still in the House of Lords who has fiddled expenses the way the elected MPs in the House of Commons and the life peers do.
Lord Sudeley
London NW1
Dustmen with grit
SIR – Jonathan Bryant (Letters, December 23) points out that we may not be willing to pay extra taxes to provide gritting lorries for occasional snowfalls in the south. But why does it have to cost so much?
My refuse collectors were unable to get to my house for four days because of the snow. Could they not be paid a bonus to drive hired lorries carrying grit instead in such weather?
Jane O’Nions
Sevenoaks, Kent
SIR – Bob Stebbings (Letters, December 23) need not worry too much about wind farms freezing up.
The fact is, they are useless in these conditions, since there have been several days with very light winds or no wind at all, so they have not contributed to the very high demand for electricity which occurs during the cold weather that we are experiencing.
Bob Duffield
Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire
SIR – Every winter, we suffer, for at least a few days, traffic chaos owing to “adverse weather conditions”.
Why do we not follow the example of Germany? There, by law, every motorist is obliged to fit winter tyres from October to April. As a result, in spite of worse falls of snow and lower temperatures, they have no difficulty on the roads.
F. R. Salinger
West Chiltington, West Sussex
SIR – Having slipped and slithered on the icy pavements, I suddenly realised that the answer is in many a garden shed – an old pair of golf shoes.
The spikes either pierce the ice or provide much needed grip without damaging the pavements.
However, if visiting friends it is advisable to take another pair of shoes to avoid incurring the wrath of your host.
Tony Cleave
Reading, Berkshire
SIR – During the current cold snap, I have not encountered a single cyclist on the icy pavements as all seem happy to risk the well gritted roads.
Susan Whitehead
Bath
How to cook sprouts
SIR – Years ago, I was told that adding vinegar (ordinary malt will do) to the sprouts would allow children to enjoy them (Letters, December 23). This works, as even young children in our family eat sprouts with relish.
They taste completely different from “untreated” sprouts and a vinegar dispenser is always on the table for both adults and children when sprouts are served.
Mike Stones
Lichfield, Staffordshire
SIR – Brussels sprouts from our garden began to be appreciated by my teenage children when I did the following: fry a chopped rasher or two of smoked bacon.
Add sprouts, cut in half and fry a little more. Add enough chicken stock almost to cover and reduce until barely cooked and the stock is getting sticky. Delicious!
Stuart Gillies
Chester
Rotund robin
SIR – If robins do not put on weight by eating little and often, (report, December 22), why does the one in my garden look as if he has swallowed a tennis ball?
Andy Charles
Newbury, Berkshire
Presidential-style debate
SIR – Although debates among the various political parties on television in the run-up to a general election are to be welcomed (Letters, December 23), the decision for the leaders of the three main political parties to have an American-style confrontation is unfortunate.
In America, a presidential form of governance operates and the two candidates challenge one another in the public arena for personal election to office.
That is not the case in Britain, where the prime minister is the “chairman” of a cabinet of ministers, the “first among equals”, and is appointed by the political party, not voted personally into office by the public. Next year, we will not be asked to elect a “head of state”, but members of political parties, who are entitled to be treated on an equal basis.
It will not be surprising, therefore, if the “minor” parties protest on democratic and constitutional grounds.
Leslie Rocker
Warminster, Wiltshire
SIR – Will these television debates be in lieu of party political broadcasts?
Kevin Barry
Englefield Green, Surrey
The oldest carol service
SIR – While living in Exeter, I attended the wonderful Christmas Eve carol service at the cathedral on several occasions and was under the impression that the earliest references to any form of carol service were those as set out in writing by John Grandisson in 1361 while Bishop of Exeter (Letters, December 22).
This year, Exeter cathedral’s service of lessons and carols will include the office of Bishop John Grandisson for Christmas Eve, sung by the cathedral choir.
Monty Taylor
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Busy vs bored
SIR – If I ever said I was bored my uncle would reply “I wish I was” and get on with his next chore (Letters, December 23).
Angela Elliott
Welton le Marsh, Lincolnshire
Wait until Boxing Day
SIR – The three most depressing words in the English language are “Matt is away”.
Emeritus Professor Harry Smith
Burton on the Wolds, Leicestershire
The young take a more serious view of climate change
SIR – Roger Helmer (Letters, December 22) is misguided if he thinks he speaks on behalf of the public. Many of us do recognise the serious threat of climate change and the need to take urgent action to mitigate and adapt to its effects. It may not appear to be a serious problem to the older generation, but I will be alive in 2050 and I do not wish to live with the consequences of runaway climate change.
May I suggest that Mr Helmer speaks to one of the many people in developing countries who are already suffering from the devastating effects of crop failure, drought, and erratic weather, caused by climate change? Or perhaps to the government of the Maldives, whose small nation will be rendered almost entirely uninhabitable by a rise in sea levels of one metre?
The Maldives recognises the need to take action on climate change and aims to be carbon neutral by 2020. Scotland, too, has legislated for 42 per cent cuts in carbon emissions by 2020. These countries can see the benefits – and the necessity – of such moves, as do a large proportion of the public.
Susan Poupard
London NW1
SIR – Nigel Cowan (Letters, December 22) is right that China benefits from climate change. That morning I received a free and unsolicited pack of low-wattage bulbs, made in China.
Geoffrey Hodgson
Leeds

Irish Times:

Extending the season of goodwill
Madam, – This year so many people helped their fellow citizens, especially those who found themselves homeless after the floods. However, if that commitment was there all year round we would probably have few, if any, people desperate on the margins of society, as we see every day.
In each city, town and village in Ireland there are people who make a difference every day of the year in their own homes and communities because they care about others. But as the casualties mount, in the face of one of the worst economic recessions in history, surely the time has come for more of us to join them, and make the effort to extend the season of goodwill?
Most of the people we meet everyday, who find themselves homeless on our streets, are outsiders. They feel excluded, and are often unable to cope with the pressures of everyday life for myriads of reasons. While it may seem like an idealistic hope, the fact remains that if everyone were made to feel welcome, overnight we would change the very nature of society.
That is a kind of revolutionary change we can only create as individuals, families and communities, because we cannot legislate as a society to make people care, and as we face into a New Year this commitment to creating a better world should not go unnoticed.
I am reminded of the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world”. – Yours, etc,
ALICE LEAHY,
Director Co-Founder,
Trust,
Bride Road,
Dublin 8.
Hanafin warns dentists over fraud
Madam, – I am angry at the Minister for Social Welfare and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin’s comments regarding the abolition of treatment benefits in the Budget.
If, as a contracting dentist,I wish to discontinue my contract with her department I must give the Minister three months’ notice in writing. I received a letter from her department on December 21st signalling her intention to effectively discontinue the scheme on December 31st. This was the first official notification I received as to how she intends to wind up the scheme and how to deal with patients who are currently in treatment or with patients who may have booked appointments in the New Year and are expecting to avail of treatment benefits.
As result of this action, non-medical-card holders who have finished primary school education have access to no State-sponsored dental treatment.
There is a lot of confusion among the public as to what their status might be in 2010, with a lack of any clear information coming from the Minister. I have not been in a position until this week to advise my patients.
The phonelines to the treatment benefits section of the Minister’s department have been constantly engaged since the budgetary announcement, as understandably the department has been overwhelmed with inquiries from members of the public and dentists alike.
I feel she is being very unjust to the dental profession in accusing us of trying to circumvent a budgetary decision when demand for this scheme is patient-led; it is our hard-hit patients who are trying to avail of the last few days of the scheme.
I believe she is also misleading the general public into believing that this scheme is being suspended for one year only, as most of us realise that due to poor fiscal management over the past number of years this Government has plunged the country into financial crisis from which we have no hope of emerging in 12 months.
If perhaps this Government could try being honest with us all and give us a reasonable period of time to wind up this scheme, this would avoid this unnecessary slurring of the dental profession in the media. – Yours, etc,
ANGELA KEARNEY,
Fair Street,
Drogheda,
Co Louth.
Voice of victim of clerical abuse
Madam, – I wish to voice my admiration for the sheer courage and grace of the victim of clerical sex abuse in her letter to the Irish people published in The Irish Times (Opinion, December 23rd). Her article shames the Irish people for their voicelessness and lack of positive action in calling for a response by both the Catholic hierarchy and the Government’s lack of pressure on the papal nuncio and the Pope.
As a human being I am sickened, angered, shamed and frustrated at the Irish people’s lack of action taken against the Catholic Church whose members treated Ireland as a paedophilic playground.
I wish to congratulate The Irish Times for giving this wonderful brave person a voice and once again to thank this person for enduring the trauma of reliving her experience by writing this letter. It behoves the Irish media to give victims a voice, and to speak on their behalf, because the Government is doing nothing! – Yours, etc,
EDEL RYAN,
Sandyford, Co Dublin.
Madam, – Congratulations on printing the plea from a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, who is calling for some kind of public response to the private crimes committed against her and thousands like her (Opinion, December 23rd). As the Catholic Church is so deeply ingrained in every facet of Irish society, any move against it feels like a move against ourselves. But there is one gesture which would cost nothing but make a strong national statement. The Angelus bell on RTÉ must be rung for the last time.
This interruption of normal broadcasting by the national service at key times is incorrectly presented as a public call to prayer, like that of a muezzin in Islamic countries. However I have walked the corridors of RTÉ and the streets of Dublin and the boreens of Connemara and never once, at noon or 6pm have I seen any sign of anyone hurling themselves to their knees and praying in response.
People in Ireland say the rosary at times of grief and celebration, in family homes and churches, but their prayers almost never coincide with the RTÉ bell. The bell is not really a call to prayer. It is a blast of narrow sectarian triumphalism which brazenly states “There is only one true faith in Ireland and anyone who differs from it has no rightful place in this nation”.
If the ringing of the Angelus was banned, or even suspended until after the resignation of those bishops who continue to deny their responsibility for crimes of omission and denial of abuse, then it would send the clearest possible signal to survivors of abuse that we as a people acknowledge their suffering. It should also be taken as a signal that all those who abuse their power over the weak and helpless will ultimately be brought to book. – Yours, etc,
ARTHUR DEENY,
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
Abuse agency funding question
Madam, –   The Government and the media need to  do an indepth  investigation into the money given by Catholic orders and dioceses and Government agencies to those who were and claimed to be sexually abused and maltreated by some members of the church.
This writer has tried for over a year to raise this issue without success.  It  is time for your paper and others throughout the nation to give coverage to the entire funding given to organisations and individuals since this issue was raised. – Yours, etc,
VINCENT J LAVERY,
Coliemore Road,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
Religious influence in schools
Madam, – Leo O’Reilly (Opinion, December 19th) writes in relation to the control the Catholic Church has over our education system that, “The Catholic philosophy of education maintains that education is for life, and religion is, for many people, an integral aspect of life. Others embrace a philosophy of life which excludes religion. We respect their freedom to do that”.
The Catholic Church controls over 90 per cent of all State primary schools. Religion is not only taught in these schools, but it infuses the whole day and it is next to impossible for the child of non-Catholic parents to avoid indoctrination. Not only that, if a local school is over-subscribed, a Catholic Church-controlled State primary school can give preference to a Catholic child. Quite frankly the notion that the Catholic Church respects people’s freedom in this regard is laughable. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD MORTON,
Coppinger Glade,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Madam, – John Murray (Opinion, December 21st) states correctly that under Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
He fails to point out that the UN does not oblige any State to fund these schools, they are only obliged to permit religious schools to exist. No State could possibly afford to fund religious schools in every denomination. In most countries that fund religious schools there is a parallel system of non-denominational State schools where the majority of children attend. State schools are obliged under human rights law to operate a system of equality of access and esteem where all religions and none are treated equally without discrimination and those human rights are guaranteed and protected by legislation. – Yours, etc,
JANE DONNELLY,
Baltrasna Lane,
Barnageera,
Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
Boston, Berlin or Bucharest?
Madam, – Our esteemed Minister for Health has alluded to a choice between the Boston and Berlin models for healthcare. Some years ago I worked in a voluntary clinic in Romania where years of corrupt government had left basic dental treatment beyond the reach of citizens.
In view of the continuing attrition of the public dental service for children and the recent savage cuts imposed on the medical card and PRSI dental schemes, it would appear that we’re being given Bucharest. – Yours, etc.
ANNA O’SHEA,
The Crescent,
Ongar Village,
Dublin 15.
Abbey moving to the GPO
Madam, – I referred to the possibility of a reconstruction of the Abbey Theatre in its original form (November 11th).
Quite a few components of the original Abbey Theatre were transferred to his front garden by the city architect, Daithi Hanly. These are still available. – Yours, etc,
THOMAS STUDLEY,
Orwell Road,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
Answer to our energy needs?
Madam, – The opinion of two of Ireland’s leading energy economists on the impact of wind energy on energy prices is, according to Dick Keane (December 22nd), delusional.
Unfortunately, his own assertions are just that.
Mr Keane has neglected to recognise in his analysis that when wind power is generated it displaces fossil fuel use. This is not just a direct saving but also reduces the economy’s exposure to fuel price increases.
Further, his claim that wind generation in Ireland is limited when we need it most and thus must be backed 100 per cent by conventional generation is just wrong. In fact winds are strongest during the winter in Ireland.
Additionally, it is windier here during the day than it is at night. This correlates nicely with electricity demand in Ireland. The outcome is that wind capacity can replace a substantial amount of fossil fuel generation plant.
The impact of wind generation on the future electricity price is uncertain.
What is certain is that if we can meet our wind energy targets we will slash our CO2 emissions. Moreover, with increasing renewable energy we make the case for electric vehicles stronger and stronger. – Yours, etc,
AONGHUS SHORTT,
Electricity Research Centre ,
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4.
How green is green?
Madam, – What was the sense of the green part of Government trying to save the planet in Copenhagen while other parts are going in the opposite direction? For example, the car scrappage scheme and now the increased test regime for cars over 10 years, will tend to increase emissions and waste from car manufacture.
In terms of saving lives, we know that defects in cars account for only about 5 per cent of accidents.
Thus it seems that, relative to other safety measures, these initiatives could be an expensive way to save lives, but a certain way to worsen the condition of the world. I hope there is data to prove me wrong. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN RIORDAN,
Ardmeen Park,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Christmas present
Madam, – Three words designed to cause chaos at 6am Christmas morning, “Batteries not included”. – Yours, etc,
TOM GILSENAN,
Beaumont,
Dublin 9.

Well I must be off

best wishes John

Grit

December 23, 2009 by johnblakey

Grit 23 December 2009

Off out into the great wide world, except that the garage door is frozen shut, it won’t open. Mary suggests a hair dryer, but I fear the ground is frozen so hard that it would need a blow torch, I finally get it open with a crowbar. There is a shortage of grit and rock salt, the television shows pictures of a five mile line of lorries queuing up, at Britain’s only salt mine. I remark that they ought to send the politicians there who have cheated on their expenses.
I collect the laundry, they are quite pleased to see me, and off to Tesco, even Tesco can’t get any rock salt for its car park, neither Homebase and they sell, or are supposed to sell the stuff. The nice young lady who sells me cut price RSPB wild bird food gives a ladylike snort, when I ask her when she things they might have some in. To the post office who promise to reserve some air mail stickers for me, I do seem to be in their good books. Its very quiet there just for once, Christmas rush nearly over I suppose.
Home and pate and cheese for lunch and toast, the garlic bread I made is lovely but won’t toast properly, or rather it toasts but won’t brown, presents a pale wan face to the world. Sandy comes round, with some rock salt! She got from a small DIY shop. I put some on the steps and ramp up to the front door so the postman, milkman and papergirl won’t slip. Trust the military to be able to scrounge some from somewhere. She refuses payment, but I manage to give her a chair in return so she can sit in the kitchen at Joan’s.
Sandy’s mum is still in hospital with lung cancer, inoperable, they were going to send her home but now they want to do an op. They feed her a beefburger, her a vegetarian! Sandy rightly complains. Her sister too has collapsed and is in a different hospital. Joan says the Doctor came to see her, but there is no record she has a bad cough. Poor Sandy, we feel helpless given this tide of woe, and give she strong coffee and chocolate biscuits and lots and lots of sympathy.
I put the Clitheroe Kid on my new phone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clitheroe_Kid
the card will hold 16 gb so there is plenty of room, I’ll do Dad’s Army tomorrow. Still haven’t got round to sorting out the email, a little progress every day.
For tea: salmon and prawn cocktail and fired aubergine and salad with rice, olives, avocado, and mayonnaise, and a little red pepper to add a touch of colour, delicious. Fluff smells the fish and comes and politely demands some, cannot refuse, though I ought not to have to feed her at table.
We watch Up the Creek, a delightful old comedy about a forgotten Navy ship with 11 men who have settled in nicely at the local town. They have been claiming wages for 50 when the ship is mothballed and there are only 11 of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_the_Creek_(1958_film)
Absolutely delightful.

Postcards

Menai Suspension bridge, Wales

Menai Suspension bridge, Wales

Culzeam castle, Scotland

Culzeam castle, Scotland

Pipers and boy, Loch Drunkie, Perthshire, Scotland

Pipers and boy, Loch Drunkie, Perthshire, Scotland

The Lock Ness Monster, Lock Ness, Scotland http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/4205049793/

A Glimpse of Lock Garve, Ross shire, Scotland

A Glimpse of Lock Garve, Ross shire, Scotland

Obituary: Marianne Stone: actress who appeared in Seven Days to Noon

Marianne Stone was destined to become one of Britain’s busiest and most effective character actresses the moment she left RADA, with the prestigious Gertrude Lawrence Award for Character Acting under her arm. She did not disappoint and during more than 50 years in the profession notched up hundreds of stage and screen appearances.
Although rarely offered more than pint-sized roles, with few lines to match, she made an impact with her presence alone, becoming a popular face within the industry. A resourceful actress, Stone was capable of playing more substantial roles than those offered, but was content specialising in cameos because it fitted in with her family life. Admitting that she never regarded acting as a career, just a “pleasurable extra”, she made a living portraying waitresses, barmaids, shop assistants and other working-class roles. She worked for many of the most celebrated film directors of the day, including the Boulting Brothers, who employed her in several productions, such as the 1950 thriller, Seven Days to Noon.
Playing a woman in a phone box, Stone remembered the film with mixed feelings. After finishing a night shoot in London, the cast headed to a café for a full English breakfast. Exhausted, and pregnant with her first daughter, Stone tagged along but fell violently ill and spent two hours sprawled across the back seat of Roy Boulting’s car while she recovered.
Marianne Stone was born in King’s Cross, London, in 1923, and was raised by her grandparents, who owned several furniture shops in the area. From a musical household, her grandmother also ran her own music school, with more than 100 pupils. Although Stone won a music scholarship to the Camden School for Girls, followed by a place at the Royal College of Music, she harboured dreams of becoming an actress, but before achieving her goal, she studied shorthand and typing and worked as a bank clerk.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6965331.ece

Letters:

Guardian:

Waiting for a delayed flight at Heathrow, I thought I might suggest a Chicago solution to slippery pavements (In praise of… gritting, 22 December). In my fair city the pavements/sidewalks are the responsibility of the owners of the adjacent property – whether residential or commercial. I suggest that councils require all pavements be shovelled and scraped by 8am each day. Sprinkling salt on sidewalks leads to slush and ice – get the stuff off first, then lay grit. Try to avoid salt – bad for leather boots. The secret cure for salt on leather – cider vinegar. My flight has been called. Hallelujah!
Caroline Cracraft
Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Most annoying cliche of 2009 (Letters, 21 December) is the use of “scenario”, as in: “Spurs now have a much more attacking scenario.” The chief culprit is Radio 5 Live’s Jimmy Armfield. The Armfield scenario Count for one recent match was 16.
Toby Wood
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
• I suspect we’ll have to wait 12 months before Angus Walker’s suggestion (Letters, 18 December) takes hold. We’re used to five-syllable years, but a seven-syllable one will be too much to bear. We’ve only had one (1977) in living memory.
Dave Headey
Faringdon, Oxfordshire
• Thanks for the friendly climate change travel advice, Mr McNally (Letters, 22 December), but here’s one Spurs supporter who has never been to White Hart Lane. I only watch the team when they play in the Midlands.
Andrew Dobson
Keele, Staffordshire
• My partner and I were so stimulated by the cryptic crossword on 15 December (Letters, 17 December) that we had to go back to bed for some 5, 2 and 22 down.
Jean Marsh

I was on the second of the Eurostar trains that broke down in the tunnel and am most grateful for the way we were looked after (Travel chaos, 22 December). The train manager gave regular information over the tannoy and I settled down to enjoy the two small bottles of red wine and a Christmas pudding I bought from the buffet. My copy of the Guardian circulated among some of the other passengers who weren’t asleep, and I read a novel until I went to sleep myself.
When we transferred to the rescue train, there were perhaps 50 firemen in yellow uniforms who guided us along the service tunnel, helping those who needed help to negotiate stairs, while a team of people were operating a kind of marathon runners’ water station, handing out bottles of water to all. The rescue train was indeed uncomfortable, with no seats. The 100 or so people in my wagon took things out of their suitcases to create makeshift cushions and pillows, putting on coats and hats and scarves against a chill. One senior fireman walked through and spoke to us and answered questions. A policeman walked through and asked if anyone needed medical assistance. No one I saw seemed distressed, while all the children slept on top of their parents’ bags and cases. Uncomfortable, yes, and I appreciate some people seem to have had it worse than others. But I would like to say thank you to the Eurostar staff and the emergency services whom I saw.
Chris Hickey
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
• Eurostar has a chairman and eight directors, none of whom appear to have a professional engineering qualification. So, they don’t seem to have a clue what to do when their trains break down. When the banking system went into meltdown, it turned out that banks were run by marketing men, grocers and the like.
David Butterworth
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
• Eurostars cancelled. Continent cut off.
JES Bradshaw
Southam, Warwickshire

I understand that the Iraqi government supports the action taken by Tony Blair to rid them of Saddam Hussein and his murderous dictatorial regime (It’s not true that no one likes me, insists Blair, 21 December). The UN security council was not prepared to go to their aid with the use of force, but only sanctions which afforded them neither material nor physical support. No doubt some of Tony Blair’s actions may be questionable, but his intentions are not.
Meanwhile the Chilcot inquiry sits in judgment. Most of the high-ranking civil servants and army officers interviewed have painted themselves whiter than white, and shamefully some even made malicious personal attacks on Blair. The inquiry is a waste of time and money, even for those who are determined to damn Blair to hell.
Colin Bower
Chelmsford, Essex
• As an American, I read with great interest Tony Blair’s assertion that outside of Britain, there is “a completely different atmosphere around me”. With regard to the press, this may be true. Yet as a matter of popular opinion, I can assure you that US and British culture are in agreement when it comes to liars with a fondness for foreign wars.
Benjamin Letzler
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
• Mr Blair, you’re so wrong. We don’t like you because you were a sycophant to President George W Bush, and helped needlessly pulverise Iraq and kill countless thousands of Iraqi civilians. This is why most of the world dislikes you, Mr Blair.  
Stephen Hitchcock
Vancouver, Canada
• So, it is only in the UK that he is not liked. Down here in Australia Tony Blair’s name is hardly greeted with acclaim. But he should take comfort because he is now among some of his best friends like Bush, Powell, Rice etc. 
George Ikners
Bronte, New South Wales, Australia
It is correct to say that the proportion of unemployed graduates aged 18-24 has risen faster than 18- to 24-year-old non-graduates during the recession (Rise in graduate jobless increases ‘generation crunch’ gloom, 21 December). Yet this must not disguise the fact that 80% of unemployed 18- to 24-year-olds – some 605,000 in England – are not graduates.
We should also put in perspective the plight of unemployed 18- to 24-year-olds with two A-levels or equivalent qualifications. The unemployment rate for this group, 22.8%, is higher than graduate unemployment, 20.7%, but it is inflated because 18- to 24-year-olds already studying full time at university and who have looked for work in the past four weeks are counted as unemployed.
Clearly, the priority must be the 56% of unemployed 18- to 24-year-olds with qualifications below two A-levels. Few of them study full time in further education, but they would surely love to get their hands on income-contingent loans and grants available to present-day full-time university students and willingly accepted by present-day unemployed graduates.
Mark Corney
Etchinghill, Kent
• The government is right to propose a “golden hello” of £2,500 to firms, encouraging them to recruit young apprentices (Report, 14 December). Our research shows that just 24% of employers plan to hire from the 16-18 age group. By comparison, two-thirds plan to hire from the 18-24 age group.
The CIPD welcomes the government’s new focus, as the number of 16- and 17-year-olds who have been unemployed for more than a year has risen by more than 100% in the past 12 months – by far the worst performance of any age group. The CIPD has consistently argued that some of the funding for these guarantees should be shifted to incentives for employers to recruit 16- and 17-year-olds.
However, the incentive for employers is unlikely to offer a full solution to the youth unemployment crisis. Our members’ feedback suggests that many employers are not in a position yet to offer apprenticeships, even with a cash incentive. That’s why we’ve been proposing a work placement subsidy of £1,250 to encourage more employers to hire 16- and 17-year-olds.
Gerwyn Davies
Public policy adviser, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
• Your article (As one industrial Hercules dies, a region labours to give life to another, 19 December) was of great interest to me, and evokes a very powerful image of industrial Teesside.
However, the premise of the article is based on the false assumption that the Redcar steelworks is doomed. At present the mothballing of the plant has been announced, but even in the worst-case scenario the plant will be maintained so that it can be made operational very quickly, as happened in Port Talbot.
MPs, trade unions, local councillors and community leaders are all united in their determination to keep the steelworks open and prevent it being mothballed. I held a debate in parliament recently where I asked the prime minister himself to call Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Board, and invite him to a steel summit in No 10 Downing Street.
Steelmaking is deeply embedded in the consciousness of the people of Teesside, and I – and the region’s other MPs – will keep fighting, for the sake of all those whose livelihoods have been threatened, to keep the plant open while also fighting to secure for Teesside the new technologies described in your article.
Ashok Kumar MP
Labour, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland
• Your correspondents from the Campaign for National Parks, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Open Spaces Society and Ramblers (Letters, 18 December) would be better addressing the chronic problems of national park inhabitants instead of mutual back-patting. I write from personal experience of working and living as a single-handed GP in Coniston, in the Lake District, from 1987 to 2008. Issues that worry locals are: living-wage-paid jobs; affordable housing; demographic changes seeing young locals leaving and retired “off-comers” moving in; pressure to close schools and post offices; expensive, inadequate public transport; and I could go on.
I know many of these are not just problems of rurality but are national. My concern is that national park status adds another tier to the bureaucratic cake without helping the inhabitants of national parks. Even worse, the articulate groups such as those of your correspondents have their own vested interests in trying to control the national parks. Local democracy with real budgets and power over more than just street lighting would result in a living and thriving community.
Dr Ray Wood
Manchester

Your report suggests public sector workers have false expectations about pay rises in 2010 (State workers expect decent pay rises despite curb, 22 December). The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development report says that 57% of public sector workers expect a pay rise that is equal to or greater than that in 2009, despite the cap of 1% announced by the government.
But these public sector employees are correct in their interpretation and it is Charles Cotton of the CIPD who is confused. The cap of 1% next year applies to all those not in long-term deals. This means that the 1.3 million local government workers who agreed 1% in 2009 might be saying they expect the same again in 2010, or even a little bit more, given that RPI inflation is set to move back to 4% in April. In addition, around 360,000 staff in higher education who are close to agreeing 0.5% for 2009 may well expect the same or more next year.
Those in the final stages of long-term deals will receive more or less the same increase in 2010 as in 2009, including 1.5 million NHS workers receiving 2.25% from next April; 480,000 teachers in England and Wales receiving 2.3% from September; and 140,000 police officers getting 2.55% next September.
It is therefore quite realistic for this survey to find that almost 60% of public sector workers expect pay rises that are the same or more next year. Much of this is already known. It is also known that RPI inflation is heading back to above 3% for much of 2010, but whether increases of 1% to 2.5% will be seen as “decent” will be debatable.
Alastair Hatchett
Head of pay services, Incomes Data Services
• The CIPD has conducted a survey into the pay expectations of workers in the private and public sectors. It has found that private sector workers expect a 3% rise, while public sector workers expect a 2% rise. But the CIPD’s reward adviser, Charles Cotton, says: “Public sector workers are clearly not sensing that the pay storm clouds are gathering. It looks like 2010 will be the last hurrah of this gilded age.” For me and tens of thousands of my public sector colleagues, the last three years of this “gilded age” have consisted of a 2% rise two years ago, 0% last year and 1% this year. So a 1% cap from 2011 isn’t really that much of a change for us. Just a thought, but what does a “reward adviser” earn and how do you get to be one?
Dan Tanzey
Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire
• Telling the banks to take a more sober line on bonuses may not be the best policy (Unthinkable?, 19 December). Why not ask the banks to justify paying bonuses at all? They might find it very difficult. Successful bonus-free banks do exist. They will very likely have a better class of more sober, professional and responsible staff. Why not challenge the rest to follow suit or explain why not? Such a challenge would attract wide support.
John Pickering
Labour Finance and Industry Group

Philip O’Connor writes: Donald Sassoon describes Nina Fishman (obituary, 14 December) as “one of the most outstanding and original personalities of the British left”, who promoted a perspective of “revolutionary pragmatism” for the British labour movement. In the turbulent times of the 1970s and 80s, Nina energetically supported a resolution of the conflicts in British society in the working-class interest through the introduction of industrial democracy (workers’ control) along the lines of the German system of Mitbestimmung (co-determination) and through constructive British engagement with the EU.
But Sassoon’s description of the British and Irish Communist Organisation in which she was then involved (as I was, too) as a “rather eccentric quasi-Stalinist group” does her a disservice. It was through the tumult of contending ideas that characterised that organisation, and in which Nina engaged so energetically, that these very ideas emerged in the first place – as did many others she shared, on nationalism in Britain and Ireland, on the “British road to socialism”, on the potential of the Bullock report for British labour, etc.
Willie Thompson writes: Nina Fishman was a member of the Socialist History Society committee and editorial board of its journal Socialist History, but her role was greater than that. Since 2006 she had been the society’s secretary – its principal organiser – and it was thanks to her energy and commitment that it continues to enjoy a flourishing existence as part of the network of academic and non-academic organisations concerned with labour movement history.
Keith Flett writes: Nina Fishman was a substantial figure as a labour historian, but also something of an oddity. Her research agenda had clearly been set when she considered herself to be a communist, but in recent times her personal politics had moved some way from what most would consider to be that area of the political terrain. I well recall, on numerous occasions, Nina’s heartfelt sighs as I made a contribution in a seminar room that she clearly felt belonged to another era. That said, she remained a friendly and helpful socialist historian who made a really significant contribution to our understanding of 20th-century British labour politics and leaders.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/13/nina-fishman-obituary

Independent:
Whenever we are hit by rare extreme weather, media headlines scream, “Why aren’t we prepared?” and letters columns are full of people pointing out that the Scandinavian countries, Canada and Siberia do not grind to a halt during their winters.
Their winters last for months and are always extreme. They have to invest in the equipment to keep their transport networks operating.
In Britain, conditions such as we have seen over the last week occur perhaps once every 20 years and it would be impractical, not to say hugely uneconomical, for the authorities to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in equipment that will only be used for a couple of days every decade or so.
Robert Readman
Bournemouth
In response to Alan Searle (letter, 22 December) it may well be because of our increasingly litigious culture that pavements are not gritted.
Certainly when I used to work in a pub as a student I was always told by my boss not to salt or grit the paths in icy weather. If I did and people slipped over that would be my fault for not doing the job properly. If we didn’t use salt and people slipped over that would be their fault for not looking where they were going.
Doug Barnes
Leeds
As the Noughties draw to an unlamented close, is there any sight which better characterises our “Sod you” society than that of our house driveways swiftly cleared of snow, but the adjacent pavements left untouched, with dangerous compacted snow and frozen slush?
Anthony Bramley-Harker
Watford, hertfordshire
Since deciding to stay at home this Christmas, I have been wallowing in exquisite schadenfreude at the misfortune of those stupid enough to travel by air or Eurostar. Until yesterday that is, when I slipped on black ice and just managed a triple axel and double salchow before crashing to the ground. A passing stranger awarded me 5.9 for artistic interpretation.
Stan Labovitch
Windsor
Climate tragedy is already starting
The Independent is to be congratulated on its outstanding coverage of the Copenhagen summit, and Johann Hari in particular for his excoriating indictment of its failure (“After the catasrophe in Copenhagen, it is up to us”, 21 December).
The real tragedy, however, is not simply that we failed to adopt hard targets, but that these were in any event way behind the curve in relation to what leading climate scientists now consider necessary.
The C limit on global warming is entirely arbitrary: it has been identified not because it has been established that this is a critical threshold or tipping point, but because it is considered a politically realistic objective.
Mr Hari rightly highlights the concern about natural carbon sinks breaking down to become carbon sources, and cites methane emissions from melting permafrost and the desiccation of rainforests as potential examples that could take effect once we cross the C threshold.
The reality, however, is that both of these phenomena are already occurring, and at an accelerating pace: West Siberian methane emissions were estimated at 100,000 tons a day in 2005; and a two-year drought in the Amazon recently brought large swathes of rainforest within a year of wholesale dieback.
If this is happening now, with a mere 0.75C of warming, by what possible logic is it argued that a rise of three times this level will somehow stabilise the situation?
Copenhagen – had it succeeded – would have represented only the first serious step toward sanity, along a road that will inescapably require the world to face up to the real challenge that lies ahead: an absolute reduction in greenhouses gases to a level that will actually stabilise our climate.
For this, not only must we achieve carbon neutrality (zero net emissions) as quickly as possible, but we need now to be urgently researching and investing in technologies (such as biochar) which can sequester carbon from the atmosphere and reduce greenhouse gas levels to a maximum of 350ppm CO2 equivalent.
In this context, the absurdly limited aspirations of the Copenhagen Accord remain rooted in our current madness.
Nigel Tuersley
Tisbury, Wiltshire
Johann Hari is right that after Copenhagen it is “up to us”. But how do we react?
He discusses joining pressure groups such as Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth or even taking non-violent direct action. All very noble. But it would be better to let the electorate make climate change the number one item on the mainstream political agenda.
With the announcement of the three main parties’ televised debates, let us, the electorate, force these parties to cut emissions and introduce a real Green New Deal.
There is an opportunity for action and commitment, with Copenhagen seen as an abject failure, with unemployment still rising, with politicians desperate to reconnect with the public and a general election within six months. A mass demonstration in London on the day before the first televised debate should suffice.
Philip Wilson
Southampton
If we can draw anything positive out of Copenhagen, it is that we don’t need agreement to reduce our own carbon admissions; we, and other countries who recognise the problem, must do what we can, whatever the less-aware countries do.
We can only hope that in time the more backward countries (hello, China; hello, USA) realise what’s happening and do what they can.
Steve Mainwaring
Bath
When you may hit a burglar
Bob Armstrong (letter, 18 December) complains that it was wrong for Munir and Tokeer Hussain to have been jailed, despite recognising that the law requires that people who defend themselves should “use no more force than absolutely necessary”. He also makes the point that the law recognises that when in fear of their safety people may well react instinctively.
Whilst Munir Hussain had just cause to fear for his and his family’s safety, once he and his brother had chased the intruders away the threat they posed was over.
But the brothers, and others who had had no involvement in the original incident, continued to chase the intruders and then attacked one of them so severely that the intruder, having been hit with a cricket bat, was left with permanent brain damage. How on earth can Mr Armstrong consider that it was neither excessive nor disproportionate to inflict such injuries to someone already lying on the ground?
The judge was quite correct – this was not an instinctive act of self-defence, it was a revenge attack.
Mike Perry
Ickenham, Middlesex
Bruce Anderson (21 December) writes that it is not the responsibility of the public to apprehend a burglar, but that of the police. I don’t agree with this; the police are agents of the public, and were instituted to help the public with full-time law enforcement.
It is the duty of every citizen to help maintain law and order.
The recent case of the Hussains in chasing the burglar has two different aspects: the chase for, and apprehension of, the burglar is laudable and within rights; the subsequent meting out of punishment with a cricket bat is both wrong and reprehensible.
The same rules apply to the police: capture and restraint with minimum force is legal, but any use of excessive force is wrong, and should be punished.
John Trapp
Swaffham Bulbeck,
Cambridgeshire
The impulse to create sacred art
Tom Sutcliffe (18 December) tells us that he regrets the artistic time spent over reliquaries and crucifixions, martyrdoms and Virgin Marys, and wonders what if all that talent had been unleashed on its own inspirations and impulses.
Perhaps because he does not share the beliefs of these artists, it does not appear to occur to him that the two may not necessarily be incompatible. Religion (whether Christian or pagan, and whether objectively true or not) would not have survived had it not spoken to people’s deepest feelings. I wonder what Tom Sutcliffe makes of the response of Dmitry Shostakovich to the pressures exerted by that tyrannical and atheistic state, the Soviet Union.
Dr Andrew Smith
Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
All proud of Peter Tatchell
I read your report about Peter Tatchell with mixed emotions – concern, sadness and yet profound pride in the wonderful man he is (“Neo-Nazi thugs left me brain-damaged, Tatchell reveals”, 17 December).
Peter is my hero. He sustained brain damage from Mugabe and Moscow bashings in the pursuit of gay rights. Peter suffered for me and millions like me. I’m certain that history will judge him generously. I think he’ll be best remembered for bravery, determination and quiet dignity, such as he often demonstrated in debate with homophobes on radio and TV. In provocative situations, I would descend into rant; not Peter. In self-assured, rational argument, he will quietly demolish his opponent.
Like millions of other members of the LGBT community, I hope he will heed medical advice. Please slow down, Peter, and recover. We need you.
Narvel Annable
Belper, Derbyshire
The least the people of Oxford East can do in honour of Peter Tatchell is to elect whoever takes his place as their Green candidate.
Guy Ottewell
Tilly Lavenas
Lyme Regis, Dorset
Israel with its back to the wall
Richard Ingrams’s ongoing comments regarding Israel and those that would support this unfortunate country (12 December) display an arrogance that borders on the absurd.
Mr Ingrams seems to believe it best to leave this tiny country’s fate in the hands of those that empathise with an Arab world that would rather see it gone. Carrying this argument to its natural conclusion would see a people with two thousand years of persecution once again with their backs to the wall.
However, this time it would be different. For this nuclear power would take down much of the Middle East with it, and what would Mr Ingrams and his friends do then for petrol?
Jeff Bracey
Liverpool
Howard Jacobson is being economical with the truth by describing the “Zionist aspiration” as “the return of Jews to their ancient homeland” (5 December). Zionism is the idea that there should be a state in what used to be Palestine specifically for the world’s Jews, and that Jews, no matter when or where they or their ancestors became Jewish, should have more right to Palestine and more rights in Palestine than the native non-Jewish population.
Mark Elf
Dagenham, Essex
Battle cry
Ashcroft and Goldsmith? The people must be heard: No Representation without Taxation!
Richard Pater
Kendal, Cumbria
Back on stage
In his review of A Daughter’s a Daughter (17 December), Paul Taylor says that the actress Honeysuckle Weeks is making her stage debut in this production. I saw her as Viola in a touring production of Twelfth Night originally staged by the Theatre Royal Plymouth back in 2005.
Paul Dormer
Guildford, Surrey
Friends with spiders
I empathise with Rosemarie Gunstone’s arachnophobia (letter, 18 December). The cure for my arachnophobia was to acquire and raise in 2006 a baby south American bird-eating spider, whom I named Boo Boo. When you raise a spiderling as a pet you quickly realise how shy, vulnerable and fascinating they are. Boo Boo is now the size of my hand, and I would go as far as to call her cute: something I would never have dreamt of three years ago.
Daniel Emlyn-Jones
Oxford
Dismal science
Kenn Virr’s observations on the variability of economists’ analysis of VAT rises and reductions (letter, 22 December) suggests that there’s still truth in the old saying that if you took all the economists in the world and laid them end to end they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion.
Gerard Bell
Ascot, Berkshire
Photographic rights
How delightful to hear of the police telling Clive Mowforth (letters, 21 December) that he should not take pictures in public because it could infringe people’s human rights. At a stroke they have made illegal every speed camera in the land.
Andrew Warner
Andover, Hampshire

Times:

Sir, Your leading article (Dec 22) is right to argue that in a civilised society the rule of law should always triumph over the court of public opinion and the avenging vigilante. As we approach an election year, it is sadly predictable to find politicians appealing to the public’s baser instincts on law and order.
The criminal justice equivalent of the arms race has raised overall costs from 2 per cent to 2½ per cent of GDP in a decade, so that we now have a higher per capita spend than the US or any EU country. Is it too much to hope that party leaders will use the opportunity of televised debates to consign such expensive and futile posturing to the scrap heap?
Geoff Dobson
Deputy Director, Prison Reform Trust

Sir, Your leading article (Dec 22) is right to argue that in a civilised society the rule of law should always triumph over the court of public opinion and the avenging vigilante. As we approach an election year, it is sadly predictable to find politicians appealing to the public’s baser instincts on law and order.
The criminal justice equivalent of the arms race has raised overall costs from 2 per cent to 2½ per cent of GDP in a decade, so that we now have a higher per capita spend than the US or any EU country. Is it too much to hope that party leaders will use the opportunity of televised debates to consign such expensive and futile posturing to the scrap heap?
Geoff Dobson
Deputy Director, Prison Reform Trust

Sir, I was one of the unfortunate passengers who endured a 14-hour ordeal on Eurostar on Friday night, which included changing trains twice: once in the tunnel, and at Folkestone (“Thousands face tunnel chaos”, Dec 21). The worst part wasn’t the length of the stoppage, nor the unbearable heat and darkness in the train before our painfully slow evacuation in the tunnel, nor even the lack of food and water. It was the deplorable dearth of information that really made it difficult.
I would much rather have been told that it was going to take 20 hours, then at least I could have accepted my fate and relaxed. But as it was, the weight of the silence from staff left my mind too active. One passenger in front of me telephoned the Eurostar helpline to see if he could find out what was going on as we waited at Folkestone, none the wiser as to what was causing this latest delay. An automated response told him the helpline was closed at weekends. It’s almost offensive that part of the compensation package is a free return journey on the high-speed, tight-lipped Eurostar.
Edward Carey
Petersfield, Hants
Sir, Is Eurostar, which “winterises” its trains annually, aware of the Schubertian overtone of its new verb? In Winterreise, a traveller’s sanity gradually slips away as he wanders through a frozen landscape, experiencing frustration, yearning and fleeting glimmers of hope, before succumbing to isolation and abandonment, resigned to a fate that cuts him off for ever from the world.
Robert Gower
Senior Tutor
Glenalmond College, Perth

Sir, Having stood on a North London train platform for an hour listening to an avalanche of messages advising me why my train was delayed, cancelled, overcrowded, not stopping etc, my anger gave way to confusion. My fellow passengers and I were advised that the reason for the delay was “adverse weather conditions” (“Big freeze blights Christmas getaway”, Dec 22).
Adverse weather in late December would be sunshine and 25C of heat; minus 2C and snow is exactly the weather that we should expect. Have the train managers never heard of the concept of “winter”? The weather in December since records began may have given the train companies a heads-up of what was in store this week. Perhaps better planning (or better excuses) are needed for next year.
Adam D. Dawson
London NW7
Sir, How can we be permitted to risk our lives on the roads and pavements, but cannot be allowed to make a cup of tea at a council play group for health and safety reasons, as I experienced recently?
John Harris
Harpenden, Herts

Telegraph:

SIR – These snowy conditions could last until the end of March – they did in 1963.
We should not expect every road and pavement to be gritted. Every motorist should carry a bag of sharp sand or ashes and a spade in order to give the wheels some grip if they get stuck.
Every pedestrian should have a pair of walking-boots handy.
Every household should have some form of emergency heating and cooking in case of a power cut.
On the other hand, the Meteorological Office has forecast a mild winter, so perhaps we should forget all this.
Mervyn Vallance
Great Totham, Essex
SIR – Britain could easily cope with the weather conditions we are experiencing. There could be investment in equipment, and training for snow-plough and gritter drivers, probably abroad in order to get the experience.
This could be provided by increased taxation. But would we be in favour of more tax to allow for the rare times the resources would be required?
Jonathan Bryant
Crowborough, East Sussex
SIR – Many BA flights have been cancelled due to bad weather. It looks as if the threatened strike would hardly have been noticed. Funny how these things work out.
Paul Ryan
Smarden, Kent
SIR – Your photo (Letters, December 22) showing eager soldiers digging out a locomotive on the line from Sheffield to Manchester across the Pennines reminds me of the progress we have made in communications. The line was electrified by 1955 at great expense, with a new three-mile tunnel being constructed at Woodhead.
It is now fully immune to delays from snow – as British Railways closed it to passengers in 1970.
Nick Ratnieks
West Clandon, Surrey
SIR – Margaret Thatcher made relatively few mistakes, but a big error was in allowing the Channel Tunnel to be rail-only. We have seen the result all too evidently over the past few days.
A road tunnel might have had more individual incidents, but these would have been minor compared to the wholesale shut-down from a queue of dead trains.
Graham Hoyle
Baildon, West Yorkshire
SIR – Our postman delivered the mail yesterday on time, with a smile and a greeting, and – despite the sub-zero temperatures – wearing shorts.
John Hunt
Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire
SIR – On Sunday, I discovered our church warden, six months short of retirement, busy clearing and gritting the lych-gate steps and 100-yard path to the church in preparation for our carol service.
Thanks to his dedication, the service went ahead. The local brass band and over 60 local people enjoyed a wonderful start to the festive season.
Rev Philip Robinson
Rostherne, Cheshire
SIR – I have a complaint about the snow. Here at Herne Bay on the Kentish Riviera, we have had no lying snow at all, despite areas close by being badly affected.
My grand-daughter is very disappointed.
Dick Holness
Herne Bay, Kent
SIR – Time for a Snow Tsar?
Roy Edwards
Woking, Surrey
SIR – I trust measures are in place to prevent wind farms from freezing up.
Bob Stebbings
Chorleywood, Hertfordshire
SIR – Tony Blair (report, December 21) says: “I got out of politics early enough to have a second act in life. Why shouldn’t a politician be able to do that?” What a pity that he had not contemplated the reverse.
After experiencing life in other careers and seeing how people react to events and unforeseen situations, he might then have been better able subsequently to serve his country as an elected MP.

Tony Merry
Liphook, Hampshire
SIR – Mr Blair admits that he said that he is far more popular abroad and there is a completely different atmosphere around him outside the country.
Perhaps, this is because he did not take these other countries, unlike Britain, to war with Iraq.
Ian Cameron
Esher, Surrey
SIR – Could the former prime minister be more popular abroad than in Britain because foreigners have not had to suffer 12 years of governmental mismanagement as those of us who reside here have had to do?
Robert Roalfe
Wilmslow, Cheshire
How to stop children complaining of holiday boredom
SIR – I used to get together “holiday boxes” to hand out on the first day of the holidays (Letters, December 22), depending on the time of year.
For the Christmas break, these could contain coloured paper and card, plus glue and Sellotape and coloured pencils. Children can then make decorations for their rooms and cards for their grandparents. They also love making biscuits and small cakes.
Children like to be occupied, just as at school. Outcome: happy children, relieved parents.
Muriel Haseltine
Whitstable, Kent
SIR – Our 11-year-old granddaughter recently arrived for a visit and announced that she was bored after 10 minutes.
Peter Burt
Ramsgate, Kent
SIR – A bored six year-old could be put to dusting those tricky places in a house that taller grown-ups find difficult to reach, for example the skirting boards and crannies that little hands can squeeze into. If a good job is done and enjoyed, then it could become a job for the six-year-old on a permanent basis. If not, it could become a suggestion for something to do the next time boredom was again claimed.
Chimney sweeping is, of course, the other option.
Ginny Hudson
Southampton
SIR – I never allowed that b-word to be spoken in our house. Children should not need non-stop stimulus. It’s a very good lesson in life to learn self-motivation.
Tessa Webb
Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
SIR – In a world of books, we felt, somewhat naively, that for our three children there was no excuse for the word boring and it was banned.
However, they got round it by saying that it was very definitely the unmentionable word.
John Piercy
Hereford
A fear for every decade
SIR – Had Ivor Yeo (Letters, December 22) gone back to the 1970s, he could have reminded us how the fear of an ice age shivered through our community.
He could also have mentioned the 1960s, when Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, led to DDT being banned, the unintended consequence of which was that millions died from malaria.
Global-warming believers willing to use the web to examine both sides of the argument will soon discover that all is not what they have been led to believe.
Gordon Hastings
Goodwood, South Australia
Cathedral choirs
SIR – We were delighted to be nominated for the most imaginative cathedral at Christmas (Travel, December 17).
However we were surprised to read that we have no traditional boys’ choir. We have no cathedral choir school, but we nevertheless have two cathedral choirs – one of boys and men, and one of girls – both of which have built an international reputation for excellence.
They sing at least one service every day in the cathedral and have made much-praised broadcasts and recordings.
The Very Rev Jeffrey John
Dean of St Albans
St Albans, Hertfordshire
That was the year that was
SIR – Surely 2009 will stand out as the year of avarice, much of which contributed to the recession, starting with bankers followed by politicians, and ending with British Airways crews threatening strikes and the news of Tony Blair’s money-making activities.
Jennifer Hughes-Nurse
Oakham, Rutland
Political TV debates
SIR – The announcement of “presidential-style” political debates between the leaders of three of the parties at the next election (report, December 22) seems to be being proclaimed as a positive breakthrough – but is it instead a rather worrying development in British politics?
The choice of parties seems unfair and out of line with all previous broadcasting standards. Going by the coverage of the announcement the governing party in Scotland (SNP) will be excluded, as will Ukip. It may be claimed that neither will be likely to form the next government, but the same could be said for the Lib Dems.
The result will be also be sound-bite television with much of the coverage based around what the leaders look like and what they wear – this is, after all, what the American broadcasts are all about.
John Birch
Letchworth, Hertfordshire
Premium Bond cheques
SIR – Yesterday, my post included a £25 cheque for a Premium Bond win.
Since there can be a long period between buying the bond and winning (12 years in this case) payment by bank transfer would be very risky. Will National Savings have to pay bond prizes in cash?
Alan Hakim
Havant, West Sussex
Crossing brussels sprouts
SIR – Chefs now advise us that cutting a cross at the base of a brussels sprout is unnecessary. I disagree.
Cutting into the stalk allows the sprout to open up somewhat and therefore to cook more quickly, maintaining the best green colour and preventing a bitter taste.
Jenny Funge-Smith
East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire

Irish Times:

Brian Cowen’s ‘annus horribilis’
Madam, – Brian Cowen’s latest fiascos bring to mind, inevitably, the dictum of Tacitus about Emperor Galba: capax imperii, nisi imperasset, “capable of government, if he had not governed”, – Yours, etc,
DR BRIAN ARKINS,
Moyola Park, Galway.
Madam, – Stephen Collins reports on a whinge by the Taoiseach about how difficult the year has been for him (Front page, December 22nd). Not one word about the fact that if the Taoiseach and his colleagues in Government had been doing their jobs properly over the 12 years that they have been in continuous power, the year would have been better for Mr Cowen, and more importantly for the rest of us. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Shielmartin Drive,
Sutton, Dublin 13.
Public support for sex offender
Madam, – It is high time that the writers who have featured at Listowel Writers’ Week in the past spoke out against the disgusting events at a court in Tralee (Front page, December 17th). They should also ask the organisers of next year’s event to make sexual abuse a central theme for the week.
Failing that, a boycott of the event by such artists and others would be in order. Perhaps a short, sharp economic shock in the area might bring some members of the community to their senses. It worked with the Catholic Church in the United States. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
South Circular Road,
Dublin 8.
Madam, – When I became aware of the public display of support for a convicted man in a court of law in Tralee, I was moved to action. That 50 people could sympathise with a man convicted of sexual assault, in front of his victim, was simply incomprehensible to me. I don’t know this woman but I set up a Facebook group “Shocked by reaction in Listowel” with the goal of finding 51 people to publicly agree that it is unacceptable. Encouragingly, 9,500 people joined in just a few days.
The actions in that courtroom sent a terrible message to this victim and all past and future victims of sexual assault. The group was set up to tell her and any person brave enough to report an assault that if 50 people sympathise with the attacker, there are many, many more who sympathise with the victim.
To focus on Listowel is to assign collective blame to what is essentially a proud town filled with good people. It also sends a message to other towns that they are safe from scrutiny and this perpetuates the problem. This could have been any town in Ireland. The “not in my backyard” school of thought is in danger of pigeonholing this.
I believe the group has now served its purpose. Thousands have condemned the events in that courtroom. There have been countless messages of support to Ms X from across Ireland and beyond, and it has encouraged donations to rape crises centres across the country. I feel this is an example of how social networking can be used to effect an immediate global response to an outrageous and shameful message sent publicly to victims of sexual abuse. I would like to wish Ms X the strength and the privacy that she needs to rebuild her life. – Yours, etc,
TRACEY FERGUSON,
Dominick Street, Galway.
Response to clerical child abuse report
Madam, – The formal statement issued by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on the resignation of Bishop Donal Murray (Home News, December 18th and Dublin diocesan website) was so terse as to be graceless.
It is ironic that the archbishop said he appreciated “the personal difficulty and pressure” Bishop Murray had been under, since much of that pressure had been created by Dr Martin’s mighty media megaphone.
Bishop Murray’s resignation had obviously become inevitable and the archbishop had to comment on it, but did his words have to sound so dismissive? There was not a single word acknowledging Bishop Murray’s impressive contribution to the church and society. I find that difficult to understand.
Whatever Bishop Murray’s failings, he has given many years of invaluable service to the diocese of Dublin, as pastor, theologian and bishop, to his adopted diocese of Limerick, and to the whole Irish church. All this he has done with a quiet dignity and style.
As a member of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Advisory Committee which drafted the framework document, the guidelines for responding to allegations of child sexual abuse by priests and religious issued by the Bishops’ Conference and the Conference of Religious, I, with the other members, attended several plenary meetings of the Bishops’ Conference in 1994 and 1995. The purpose of these encounters was to report to the bishops the progress of the committee’s work and to discuss with them how best to proceed, since they would eventually have to “own” the document if the guidelines were to be effective.
I was always struck by the quality of Bishop Murray’s contribution to these discussions. They were thoughtful, carefully-considered, incisive and invariably wise. In addition, he directly assisted the committee by giving the benefit of his expertise on particular questions. He fully supported the thrust of the committee’s work.
The Murphy report notes that most of the complaints of child sexual abuse made to the Dublin diocese in the period investigated by the commission dated from 1995 and onwards, especially after the framework guidelines became the norm for Irish dioceses in 1996. It also notes the way in which many of these complaints were handled appropriately by the diocesan authorities and by religious orders.
The framework document was the foundation stone for a more effective church response to the appalling crime of child abuse by priests. It became the benchmark against which the development and improvement of child protections measures in the church and elsewhere had to be measured.
At the time of its publication Barnardos strongly welcomed it, saying “society might take a lead from the bishops’ advisory committee in endorsing the principles on which its report is founded”.
The ISPCC described the document as “a watershed both for the church and society” and noted “doctors, psychiatrists, counsellors and some social workers remain ambivalent in the reporting of some abuse”.
This is hardly surprising, since the Murphy report records the following evidence given to the commission by the HSE: “In the mid 1970s there was no public, professional or government perception in Ireland or internationally that child sexual abuse constituted a societal problem or was a major risk to children” (the italics belong to the report). The report also says social workers told the commission that “awareness and knowledge of child sexual abuse did not emerge in Ireland until about the early 1980s”.
As the Murphy report also acknowledges, the first set of guidelines for the reporting and investigation of non-accidental injuries to children, issued by the Department of Health in 1980, made no reference to child sexual abuse. When revised guidelines were issued in 1983, they included one brief reference to it but no elaboration of the issue. It was not until 1987, when a further revised version was issued, that the department’s official guidelines included a substantial section dealing specifically with child sexual abuse.
In drafting the framework document, the advisory committee had the benefit of a growing understanding and awareness in society at that time of the dynamics of abusive behaviour by perpetrators and its enduring and extremely painful consequences for victims.
The framework document, and the acknowledged improvements in practice which followed its publication, are part of the legacy Archbishop Martin inherited when he succeeded to the see of Dublin in 2003. – Yours, etc,
JIM CANTWELL,
Myrtle Park,
Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Madam, – Marie Collins (December 21st) is absolutely correct. Why do these bishops keep talking about themselves?
They have become so arrogant with their power that they think a few platitudes and promises of a better future will allow the matter to fade from view and they will continue with their pretence of being men of God’s church.
Let them all resign, take humble jobs within the church to show their shame and sorrow and beg forgiveness from the people they allowed to be abused. It is only by a true showing of remorse that the Catholic church in Ireland can survive and grow back the trust of the people. – Yours, etc,
DAMIEN FITZMAURICE,
Burnaby,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Madam,   There are a number of issues in Dr Garret FitzGerald’s article on December 19th, which seem to echo and develop ideas in my own article (December 8th). One issue must be addressed immediately:  his interpretation of the Vatican’s 2001 instruction, Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela.
In attempting to rebut my understanding of the document, he repeats the erroneous claim by other commentators, that “secrecy be maintained about these crimes” and that this was clearly interpreted by our bishops as “precluding them from reporting such cases to the Garda.”
How does Dr FitzGerald come to such a conclusion? To begin with, he evidently fails to understand the nature of the secrecy that surrounds such disciplinary procedures (similar to in-camera trials in civil law). The Latin term “secretus” in this context means, very simply, “confidentiality”, one, I am informed, that applies only for the duration of the disciplinary procedure.
The Murphy report, in outlining its own procedures, also found it necessary to draw up its own “Memorandum on Confidentiality for parties involved in the Commission’s work as well as protocols of confidentiality and conflicts of interest for its own staff” (2.13).
More crucially, Dr FitzGerald does not take into account how bishops have in practice interpreted this document of 2001. For example, since its publication, the diocese of Ferns has referred no fewer than 10 cases to the Vatican involving priests against whom allegations of child sex abuse have been made. Six ended with dismissal from the clerical state, two in voluntary laicisation; two cases are still pending. The diocese has ensured that all such cases be reported to the Garda. In addition, it should be noted, that, since 2002, in Ferns all cases continue to be discussed at inter-agency meetings – Garda/HSE and diocese. The meetings were the result of an initiative of the diocese and gave rise to a recommendation (not yet implemented) of the Ferns report of 2005 to legislate for such meetings.
This practice belies Dr FitzGerald’s interpretation of the 2001 document. It shows that confidential internal disciplinary procedures can and do run in tandem with informing the civil authorities of allegations against clergy. Those who believe Rome in 2001 ordered bishops to “cover up” the scandals need to explain why it is that a diocese like Ferns informs both Rome and the civil authorities whenever an allegation comes to its attention. – Yours, etc,
Rev Dr D VINCENT TWOMEY
SVD, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology,
Divine Word Missionaries,
Maynooth, Co Kildare.
Stamp of disapproval
Madam, – Jenny Morton (December 17th) has a problem. She can’t buy non-religious Christmas stamps for her non-religious Christmas cards. She need look no further than Garrison Keillor (same date) for the answer. “Christmas is a Christian holiday – if you’re not in the club, then buzz off.” – Yours, etc,
PETER O’NEILL,
Braemor Avenue,
Dublin 14.
On the right track?
Madam, – Anyone annoyed about the return of the Garmin radio ads this year should ask themselves, where would we be without satnav? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CULLEN,
Albert Park,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.
Seasonal spat over No 1 spot
Madam, – I would like to take issue with your article “X-rated metal beats X Factor star to UK Christmas No 1” (Front page, December 21st). It is stated that Rage Against the Machine are “a little-known American punk-metal band”.
Rage Against the Machine have received two Grammy Awards; Best Metal Performance for the song Tire Meand Best Hard Rock Performance for Guerrilla Radio.
The band has also received three nominations from the MTV Video Music Awards. Their second album, Evil Empire, entered Billboard’s Top 200 chart at number one in 1996, and subsequently rose to triple platinum status. The following release, The Battle of Los Angelesalso debuted at No 1 in 1999, selling 450,000 copies the first week and then going double platinum. They also headlined the Sunday bill at Oxegen 2007. Hardly little-known. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN KELLY,
Cragreagh,
Pallaskenry,
Co Limerick.
Clamping in hospital car parks
Madam, – In the straitened times we now live in, the question for the HSE and the hospital managements must be: how far is far enough?
I had an appointment at Connolly hospital this month. I was aware that the introduction of parking charges was imminent. I was not aware that the intention was to couple this with a policy of clamping.
I can understand the need to have parking charges. I do not like them, but they are inevitable in these times, although I feel it is not in keeping with a hospital ethos. My visit was an appointment, so I had a given time to be there and hoped to be seen within a specific time. So I was able to feed the meter for two hours.
Attending a hospital is generally stressful, for many reasons. But this system of pay and display increases the stress. It is unlike the systems in other hospitals and institutions where you can pay on departure and the machine will take notes, credit cards, etc.
Very unwell or elderly patients coming in to the hospital must remember to bring their medical card or have €100 to pay for the visit and now they must also find the change for parking, guess the duration of their visit and pay for it in advance.
I have witnessed the reception staff in AE being hassled by people having to wait so long to be seen by a doctor. I can only imagine the problems for staff that this new system is going to throw up.
Having been given good or bad news by the doctor, or been admitted to the hospital, you discover your time has expired because in your fear, frustration and worry, you forgot to keep “feeding the meter”. You may leave the hospital to find yourself clamped. The clamping charge is €80. Maybe it would be cheaper for all patients to call an ambulance.
On the day of my appointment I witnessed the clampers in the car park, and I felt threatened.
This is the approach of a most uncaring and bullying authority. Perhaps it is to reduce the numbers of people on trolleys? – Yours, etc,
WILLIAM COLEMAN,
Castletown,
Leixlip, Co Kildare.
Religious influence in schools
Madam, – The pernicious influence of the Catholic Church in the Irish State is evidenced yet again by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe’s statement that the removal of religious influences from schools is “not within my remit, nor indeed within my thought” (Home News, December 19th). If it is not within the Minister for Education’s “remit” then who is responsible? On the same day in your paper the chairman of the Bishops’ Commission on Education, Bishop Leo O’Reilly, states that “a [school] patron can only be recognised and registered as such by the Minister of Education”.
Appropriately enough for a religion and state embedded together neither the Minister nor the bishop is prepared to take responsibility for the fact that more than 95 per cent of national schools, all funded by the taxpayer, directly implement a Catholic ethos. There is very little room in Ireland for a non-Catholic child.
The status quo of a Catholic Ireland will remain unless there is legislation to separate church and State. The token resignation of a few bishops while tolerating a monolithic religion’s stranglehold on our education and healthcare is a fudge suited to politicians and bishops who, after all, do have the same hymn book. – Yours, etc,
DANNY HASKINS,
Oatlands, Wicklow.
US troop surge in Afghanistan
Madam, – JA Barnwell (December 14th) asks: “Why has the announced American escalation in Afghanistan prompted virtually no response in ‘neutral’ Ireland? Bunreacht na hÉireann (Article 29) advocates the ‘pacific (ie non-military) settlement of international disputes’.” The number of armed US troops that have passed through Shannon airport so far in 2009 exceeds 230,000. That’s almost a battalion of troops each day. That amounts to about 23 times the size of the Irish Defence Forces, in direct breach of the Hague Convention on Neutrality.
The probable reason why there has been no response to this by the vast majority of the Irish people is that they either don’t care, or choose to ignore the fact that over one million people, including up to 250,000 children, have died in the unlawful and unjustified wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with Irish Government complicity.
This issue is far more serious than the combined effects of the child abuse scandal, the political corruption scandals, the banking scandals and the economic crisis. – Yours, etc,
EDWARD HORGAN,
St Pravda,
Kharkiv,
Ukraine.
Establishing cause of banking crisis
A chara, – It would be a very simple task to establish the cause of the banking crisis in Ireland.
An audit of the approvals of defaulted loans would settle the matter most transparently.
I could do it myself, for a reasonable fee, given the appropriate disclosures. – Is mise,
SHANE O’DOHERTY,
Balglass Road,
Howth,
Co Dublin.
Oh, yes, he can!
Madam, – The Irish Timesreports (Home News, December 17th) that Michael Lowry TD is to appear in a pantomime over Christmas. Surely your esteemed newspaper has erred? As every schoolboy knows, the Dáil does not sit over Christmas. – Yours, etc,
DENIS O’DONOGHUE,
Countess Grove,
Killarney, Co Kerry.

Well I must be off

beat wishes John

Ice

December 22, 2009 by johnblakey

Ice 22 December 2009

The ice lies on the drive the snow covers the ice, its very very cold. I have to go and refill the bird feeder. Mary threatens to do this but I do not want her to slip and break a leg. “Think of the parking charges at the hospital” I tell her. So cautiously holding on tight I creep up the snow covered, ice bound, stairs to the garage roof and get the bird feeder. It was full only two days ago, its those squirrels, aren’t they supposed to be hibernating or something, instead of stuffing themselves?
The mesh on the feeder is just a little too large so I layer the seeds with peanuts which helps a bit and then back up the icy stairs to the garage roof and I hang it back there. It swing merrily on its hook. Despite the ice and the snow the bin has been emptied. Even thought he bin strike is long over with I still feel that this is a miracle, you put it out full and it comes back empty, marvelous.
Decide to leave the phone for another day and read Edna Healey’s book Part of the Pattern, she does not write as well as Denis Healey thought she covers much the same ground after their marriage. She name drops even more than he does, but having met all these fascinating and interesting people, particularly their wives, she has little to say about them. Either she is being too discreet, though why after thirty years, or she is unable to home in on the great as seen by their spouses and reflected in a different light. She is not very good at describing her own personality either, her feeling, her thoughts. A sort of right hand clone of the great man.
An old bit of pie, some diced venison leeks, carrots and a bit of fennel, all stewed together in the slow cooker all day long. We settle down to watch The Fast Lady, a Stanley Baxter, Leslie Philips, Julie Christie, James Robertson Justice vehicle, but the car is the star. Done with a love of motoring which could not be done without a trace of guilt today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fast_Lady A host of minor recognizable characters appearing for second in a blaze of delight, terrific!

Postcards

Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland

Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland

A Highland Greeting from Dunoon Scotland

A Highland Greeting from Dunoon Scotland

Lough Ree near Athlone, Co. Westmeath, Ireland

Lough Ree near Athlone, Co. Westmeath, Ireland

The Skirl of the Pipes, a Hail Caledonia card, Scotland

The Skirl of the Pipes, a Hail Caledonia card, Scotland

A Farm House in Ireland, Ireland

A Farm House in Ireland, Ireland

I love the skiing cat! Postcrossing card from Finland

FI 706354

Uber twee blonde blue eyed cat Postcrossing card from Finland

FI 706837

Postcrossing card from Finland some rather nice meadow flowers

FI 706935

Obituary: Anthony Rota: antiquarian bookseller

The cult of the modern first edition, which has so plagued — and yet entertained — collectors over the past century was largely inspired by Bertram Rota, working in the 1920s from his bookroom in Charing Cross Road. Indeed, one of the firm’s catalogues, issued in 1968, is cited as a source of one meaning of the word “modern” in the Oxford English Dictionary. With the rise and fall, and nowadays considerable recovery, in the value of such things (though dust-jackets are often more valuable than the book itself), the trade has flourished. Bertram’s death in 1966, aged 63, left his son Anthony, then only 34, to continue in his wake, becoming in turn one of the leaders in the market.
Anthony’s earlier (and continuing) enthusiasm for film had won him a place on the first four-year diploma course announced by the British Film Institute, but the closure of about two thirds of the cinemas at that time, from about 5,000 to 1,500, meant that the course never got under way. He had spent two years in the London publicity office of 20th Century Fox, and then two years’ national service in the RAF, towards the end of which his father repeated his invitation to join the family firm — thereby starting him on a long and successful career.
Father and son worked together for 14 years, Anthony learning all the minutiae of the books, pamphlets, manuscripts and letters of the contemporary literary scene, points that distinguish not so much the rarity as the current value of what is to hand. There were, at the same time, all the problems involved in such matters: what is wanted is the first issue of the first printing of the first edition — and it is this first issue that will command the greatest premium. Rota told of a poor copy of a first impression skilfully rebound in a fine second impression binding, an “improvement” that the firm first noticed on a visit to the binder’s, and then cried down when the volume was later offered by a runner at the shop. Forged dedications from the author, and even forged dust-jackets, were other deceits to be offered and declined.
In 1966, when the time came to take over the firm, he moved into his father’s office, and made the trip to the US that his father had been planning. This was the prelude to a long series of transactions with US institutional libraries that were then full of funds and anxious to expand their holdings of 20th-century authors. He was able to continue the firm’s long association with the Humanities Research Centre of the University of Texas in Austin, and was able to export a great deal to other university libraries: North Carolina at Chapel Hill, South Carolina, and at least a dozen more, including those in Canada, Japan and Australia. He also supplied books to UK universities.
The shop itself moved several times, and the number of staff rose and fell with the fortunes of trade. In the 1950s there were rooms in Vigo Street, at the end of Albany. In 1965 the firm moved to fashionable, and much larger, premises at the end of Savile Row. On the expiry of that lease, in 1977, the shop moved to Long Acre, restoring dilapidated premises. The firm then transferred, in 1987, to a smaller, two- storey building around the corner in Langley Court. In 1994, with the downturn of business that hit much of the trade in the 1990s, these premises were leased to a firm of tailors, and the firm went back to the upper floor of its earlier location in Long Acre.
Suffering in his later years from Parkinson’s disease — against which he was able to struggle for about 20 years with considerable success — he effectively retired in 2003 in favour of his elder son, Julian, who has since given a more antiquarian tone to the business, motivated by earlier years at Sotheby’s and then Simon Finch.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6964350.ece

Letters:

Guardian:

So the hopes and fears of all the years end not with a bang but a whimper (Report, 21 December). Of course those with reputations to uphold will tell it differently, but only the climate sceptics are smiling. We have to learn that our addiction to top-down, command-and-control governance is as dangerous as our addiction to carbon. While we should never abandon the quest for a legally binding international agreement, we must redouble our attempts to open up a new front at the local level.
One of the few positive notes from Copenhagen was the conference of the elected mayors from the major cities. Over the last decade, in spite of the national politics, American cities such as Boulder, Portland and Santa Monica have been quietly, but effectively, decarbonising their economies. Here, the examples of the Transition towns along with councils such as Kirklees, Stoke, Birmingham and Camden have started to show how fine words can be turned into effective actions.
In hindsight, the failure to place a statutory duty on local authorities under the Climate Change Act seems an appalling omission, only corrected in Scotland. But do we need a law? Any council that takes a serious view of the priorities for its communities could not avoid giving the highest priority to climate change, particularly as energy efficiency also delivers financial efficiency.
A groundswell of actions by individual communities led by local authorities, supported in turn by national government, is surely the most effective way of creating the climate for change that would tip our leaders into action.
Duncan Kerr
Managing director, A Climate 4 Change
• Talks based on “top down” policies as a route to reaching a meaningful agreement were almost doomed to fail. It seems plain to all but the bureaucrats that a “bottom up” approach is crucial.
Ban Ki-moon has said that information and communications technologies (ICTs) are a vital part of the solution to confront global warming. But the voice of the ICT industry has been a major omission in Copenhagen. The GSMA is the trade association that represents the worldwide mobile communications industry – that’s 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem – and together we have set out our industry’s goals to reduce its total global greenhouse gas emissions per connection by 40% by 2020. ICT can show individuals that helping the planet also helps their own bank balance. It is consumer effort, supported by industry, that will stimulate the mass mobilisation that is needed for effective change.
Tom Phillips
Chief government and regulatory affairs officer, GSM Association
• Now that the world’s leaders have failed to reach an agreement, perhaps it is time to consider other ways of encouraging people to act together to prevent accelerated climate change. After the second world war the twinning of towns from different countries was encouraged as a way of promoting closer understanding. Perhaps now is the time to revise this practice and apply it to the developed and developing nations, so that individual towns could come together and see the former decrease their emissions in line with increases in the latter, while also supplying funds and technological knowhow. Then perhaps the civic leaders of urban centres such as Leeds and Lagos, or Denver and Dakar, might succeed in achieving what their leaders could not.
Professor Colin Campbell
Fulford, York
• Ed Miliband is wise to recognise the crucial roll being played by the green NGOs and “a wider cross section of the public” in the drive to stave off disaster (The road from Copenhagen, 21 December). This will take massive grassroots pressure. He is also right in pointing to the need for “major reform of the UN body overseeing the negotiations”. This should accompany a reform of the UN, including dropping the veto enjoyed by the founding member states and giving proper power to other members.
Jim McCluskey
Twickenham, Middlesex
• The focus on Copenhagen should not be allowed to obscure the other major reason for phasing out the use of oil, gas and coal: they are finite, and demand will eventually exceed supply. The depressing emphasis on carbon trading demonstrates our overriding intention to keep burning fossil fuels as long as we can. Our society is like a super-tanker, heading for shallow waters. But we don’t need to reach agreement with the crew on other supertankers to start changing direction. We can decide ourselves to head for the deep waters of an economy based only on renewable energy. Others will follow.
Chris Osman
Oxford

To imply that safety of passengers may be compromised by the reduction in crew is quite wrong (Letters, 19 December). I am BA cabin crew working from London Gatwick, where we operate with the crew compliments that BA have now introduced at Heathrow. These have been in operation at Gatwick for three years and in no way does the safety and security of our passengers suffer in any way.
Name and address supplied
• Has no one asked Eurostar the obvious question? Why weren’t passengers evacuated instead of being imprisoned on the train for 15 hours (Report, 19 December)? I remember, when the tunnel was being built, that a central service tunnel was incorporated in order for evacuation to be possible. Why wasn’t it used?
Jeff Wells
Layham, Suffolk
• Yes, Mr Dobson, you should change clubs (Letters, 21 December). Why not cycle a couple of miles to the Britannia Stadium instead of going to London? You would be able to watch Stoke City play, safe in the knowledge that you have done your bit to combat climate change.
Ian McNally
Comberton, Cambridgeshire
• The City of London police may care to reflect that if we define iconic buildings in terms of their fame and their symbolic significance (Letters, 15 December) then every time they stop people trying to photograph a building they increase the chances of that building being labelled iconic.
Leslie Sklair
Emeritus professor of sociology, LSE
• You picture the Queen catching a train (Report, 18 December). But surely it’s illegal to take photos in stations or of the transport infrastructure? I hope the photographer was arrested.
Vernon Dodd

Ed Miliband wants to place the blame for failure at Copenhagen on China (The road from Copenhagen, 21 December). So it was nothing to do with the rich countries walking away from commitments under the Kyoto protocol? Or because the emissions-cuts targets on the table from industrialised countries were well off what it will take to stay below 2C global warming? In no way due to a proposed $100bn fund by 2020 to help poor countries respond to climate change, but with no concrete plans to raise the money and tied up with so many conditions for developing countries that it becomes disingenuous? It was not that the two-page Copenhagen accord, which is devoid of real figures, was a fix up by a few nations?
Come on Miliband, we all know what is needed to get a fair, ambitious and binding deal on climate change: rich countries coming forward with a package that will really save the world.
Dr Alison Doig
Senior climate change adviser, Christian Aid
• Ed Miliband blames China for the “failure” of the Copenhagen talks to achieve a legally binding agreement on greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. After complex and important negotiations it is a very bad negotiating strategy to attack your partners. The inexperience displayed by Miliband in dealing with China seems to come from a real ignorance about the rapid progress made in China in reducing GHGs through many, extensive, practical programmes – despite being a developing country.
Although the UK invented cleaner coal technology, it does not yet have a single clean coal power station, whereas China, according to an excellent Asian Development Bank study, has already built 235. Forests of solar panels and hot water cylinders cover the rooftops of many Chinese cities, but try to find just a few in the UK. China has huge hydro dams, large wind turbine parks and is building nuclear power stations. In the UK, thanks to the closure of hundreds of coal mines for political, not environmental reasons, the UK’s CO2 emissions were slashed by 16%. The moral high ground from which he preaches is based on the destruction of the communities all around him. I suggest that Miliband comes to China to see for himself. I would be happy to take him around.
Dave Feickert
Beijing, China
• Having made a desultory attempt at Christmas shopping yesterday, I am having some difficulty reconciling our apparent concern about the recalcitrance of the Chinese to agree targets at Copenhagen with the fact that it seems impossible to find any item in most baby shops that is not made in China. We are happy to consume vast quantities of material, much of it plastic, which they produce cheaply, while simultaneously affecting concern about the consequences of that production. It seems to me that there is a case for more joined-up thinking on this issue.
Jude Anderson

What a gloomy picture Jackie Ashley paints of old age (Comment, 14 December): many pensioners are doomed to end life wretched and lonely; we will be a burden to our loved ones and society. That may be true in some cases, but thankfully most of us will soldier on and be valued by those dear to us to the end.
Older people make a substantial positive contribution to society. We are carers for our grandchildren or an aged relative or friend. Without us many voluntary groups would grind to a halt. Many of us still work. Ashley rightly identifies lack of suitable housing and social isolation as major issues and asks what the government, local authorities etc are going to do about it.
Many pensioners have substantial assets. Up to 70% of us are owner-occupiers. Income-wise, we are the “golden generation” – most of us are far better off than our parents were at our age and much richer than our children are likely to be, given the pension crisis. Ashley cites examples of superb housing facilities for the elderly in countries such as the Netherlands and Germany. What she didn’t mention is that many of them are mutual housing schemes where the properties are owned and managed by the older people themselves. Continental governments have been prepared to support this kind of self-help and mutual aid. Why not British governments?
Glyn Thomas
Barnet, Hertfordshire
• The only crisis aspects of ageing are the hundreds and thousands of personal crises faced by older people and their carers living in poverty, in loneliness, or without adequate care and support. These should be dealt with urgently.
But the long-term decline in the ratio of workers to pensioners has not, so far, presented any difficulty because productivity has continued to rise more than fast enough to compensate for it. Measures to extend working life would prevent a problem arising in the foreseeable future. Why the cost of decent living for older people “feels heavy” when the UK’s state pension is way below those in other major European countries and its poverty rate is three times that of the Netherlands is a mystery.
And much of what Jackie Ashley calls for is already in hand: there is a national strategy, Age of Opportunity, and an excellent housing policy, Lifetime Homes – though both need major commitments of resources. And the UK research councils are investing heavily in trying to create the evidence base for policies in this field. This includes the key role of technology, from smart homes to wearable technology, in sustaining autonomy.
Professor Alan Walker
University of Sheffield
• Jackie Ashley is right to draw parallels between climate change and demographic change. Both require concerted, long-term action. Our ageing society provides the chance to rethink our roles as older citizens, with the chance to continue contributing in many different ways after “retirement”. Older people increasingly will be carers of other older people, as we live longer with dementia and disabilities. The challenges are to bring housing and health into the equation, to create places that are good to grow old in; and to find the fairest way to pay for better care. A care duty on estates could bring in extra funding.   
Most people who will actually vote at the next election are likely to be aged 60 or over. They and their families and carers want quality care and support. Will politicians of all parties deliver?
Stephen Burke
Chief executive, Counsel and Care
• My house would accommodate a family, but I live alone. I have made various changes to it over the years so it would continue to suit me in my later years. I have no desire to move into a community of elderly people; I enjoy the sounds of neighbouring children and their parents. Am I supposed to feel guilty at having more space than I strictly need?
Margaret Gooch
Portsmouth

Independent:

Steve Richards fails to mention the Liberal Democrats in his opinion piece “The politics of ownership” (17 December) even though they have already proposed a John Lewis solution for the Post Office.
The Lib Dems have been leading on the accountability of banks and the financial and commercial sectors generally. Because, of course, the concomitant of ownership is accountability.
The evolution of democracy has been driven by the abuses of unaccountable private interests. But in the UK over the last 30 years we have witnessed the biggest peacetime shift of power from local to central government and from both to the private interests of transnational corporations, interests arising out of privatisation, and to an army of quangos.
Local councils are virtually powerless to represent the wishes of local residents on the big issues, while central government more often than not defers to powerful lobby groups. Yet the first people locals go to for help are councillors and MPs.
There isn’t much prospect of a change since if the Tories win the general election they will further limit the activities of local councils, for instance by establishing state-funded private schools. Indeed, when the Tories were last in power local government came close to extinction.
Lack of accountability and control is the biggest single reason for the pitiful turnouts at both national and local level. Liberal Democrats are committed to reversing this trend.
Stephen Jackson
Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex
Now vote for a green future
I agree with Johann Hari (21 December) that the Copenhagen summit has proved an abject failure.
He is also right to encourage people to join campaigning groups and to urge those that can to take direct action against the immoral inaction on the part of our elected politicians. But it is wrong to deny that political change is possible. To do so will reinforce those already disenchanted by our badly tainted political system.
We know from painful electoral experience here in the North-west what happens when decent people fail to vote or engage with the political process. When two out of three voters stayed at home it enabled a climate change denier and leader of a racist political party to gain election as an MEP by the narrowest of margins.
It is time for wider recognition that the election of Green MPs in Brighton, Norwich and elsewhere, even under first-past-the-post is now a real and desirable outcome for the next parliament. To maximise the impact of direct action and campaigning work, we will need Green politicians in Westminster.
Peter Cranie
Liverpool
Thank you to Johann Hari for giving me some ideas for keeping my own campaign against climate change going, despite the cop-out at Copenhagen.
My new year resolution is to support Greenpeace and to work on my own carbon footprint by following the 10:10 campaign. As Johann says, this is where a “mass movement of ordinary democratic citizens” must succeed.
Ann Sargant
Lyme Regis, Dorset
Although it hasn’t snowed for a while here in south London the icy conditions are hanging on and a strange phenomenon has appeared: people walking along the roads.
Yes, the streets have been gritted and are pretty much ice-free but the pavements are covered in a sheet of ice which makes them like skating rinks. So in order not to fall over, the few people that do decide to walk are forced to walk on the road.
With precious little agreement having been found in Copenhagen, this reflects poignantly on our relationship to the private car and to our own bodies, and so, to misquote George Orwell: “Four wheels good, two legs bad.”
Whether or not it is the local authorities or the residents themselves who should clear the pavements, this “road-walking” phenomenon is an interesting litmus test telling us that we value petrol-burning, CO2-emitting cars above using our own legs.
Until this basic trend changes, climate meetings, treaties and agreements will have very little effect, as we have built emissions into the very core of our lifestyle.
Alan Searle
Mitcham, Surrey
So China was holding the world to ransom was it (headline, 18 December)? What then has the United States been doing for the last few years, refusing to engage with the Kyoto Protocols and denying climate change itself?
Then Mrs Clinton flashed a $100bn bribe and made it conditional on the good behaviour of China and other recalcitrant Southern countries.
The effects of climate change require far more radical change than we are currently considering. It’s the growth model that’s the problem. That’s not going to be solved by inviting the “developing” world to bear the effects of the “developed” world’s lifestyle – as always.
Jaya Graves
Manchester
The (non) events last week show that we are now entering the century of China. The extraordinary sight of President Obama and the EU leaders being frustrated in their ambitions by Chinese obstinacy is one that we can expect to get used to on a regular basis.
How a country reacts to a loss of global influence is as important for the world’s future as the manner in which a new power copes with its newly acquired status. It remains to be seen how successfully and peacefully both China and the US will face up to the new political reality of a twin-superpower world, and one in which their relative standing is evolving in China’s favour .
Vince Purton
Twickenham, Middlesex
We should not be too despondent. Copenhagen is, after all, the first comprehensive international conference to attempt to deal with a global problem, and it is a start. There will have to be many more.
Furthermore, global warming is not the biggest threat to the planet. Mankind itself is the biggest threat: the ever increasing population must be brought under control, but when are we going to see an international conference seeking to achieve that?
R Watts
King’s Lynn, Norfolk
Am I the only one to find something gloriously positive in the Copenhagen talks? In the face of potential global disaster, people of all races, creeds, genders and nationalities came together. They argued – but they did not fight. Next time will be a bit easier. And one day (hopefully before it is too late), they will agree, and realise that this is the only way our world is going to survive.
Anne Fry
Basingstoke, Hampshire
The debacle in Copenhagen reminded me of Rosa Luxemburg’s comment of a hundred years ago: that the future for humanity is either “socialism or barbarism”.
World capitalism offers us economic crisis, war and environmental destruction. Our state and corporate rulers put short-term profit and power before people and planet. If the ordinary people of the world do not take democratic control of society on an international scale and plan for a sustainable future, then the prospects for humanity are bleak.
Phil Webster
Whalley, Lancashire
This peer looks like good value
How does The Independent expect me to react to the story “£74,000: the cost of the most expensive peer” (10 December); shock that he costs the taxpayer so much, or so little?
We are told that last year he attended the Lords on 145 days (that must be every day that the Lords were sitting) and asked more than 700 questions (more than anyone else), which suggests that he treats it as a full-time job of holding the government to account. For this employment his pay is £200 per day of attendance (which must also cover office costs), plus £174 per night to stay in London. Few but the rich could manage that without some form of extra remuneration.
I hold no brief for John Laird, and I don’t defend the current system of expenses, but I do think we need a more grown-up debate about what kind of people we want in our Second Chamber, what and how we pay them, and what we expect them to do.
Michael Green
Wokingham, Berkshire
Monument to Scott’s folly
While the Scott hut should probably be preserved as a time capsule of Antarctic exploration (report, 18 December) it should not be preserved as a memorial to what was a massively incompetent expedition.
Scott had access to the best Scandinavian advice from men with vast experience of Arctic travel and yet insisted on using ponies, whose diet of high-volume fodder made them completely unsuited for purpose, and whose hooves would break through anything but the hardest snow.
The result was the terrible epic of man-hauling sledges to the pole, resulting in the needless death of himself and all his companions, while Amundsen had a comparatively trouble free journey using dog sledges.
Pete Parkins
Lancaster
A letter from TV Licensing
We were interested to read John Miller’s letter about demands by TV Licensing (15 December) since we have recently received what is obviously the first letter in a sequence.
Like Mr Miller we were not prepared to spend 30p to advise TV Licensing again that we do not have a television. We have lived at the same address for 38 years and have received several cycles of these letters. Once we even had a visit to the house; the inspector was satisfied that we had no TV, having looked in our lounge, and did not need to check that we did not have one secreted in our bedroom.
Why do they not send out a reply-paid envelope with the first letter?
Philip Thornton
Glenys Thornton
WALTON ON THE NAZE, ESSEX
Carer’s thanks to those who help
In these sometimes depressing times, I’d like to spread a bit of cheer by congratulating some of the great people who help in the community.
Because of my wife’s illness, I have had to restrict my hours in employment, with the financial hardship that it brings. I’d like to voice my praise for Swan Housing Floating Support, Greenfields Community Housing, Mind, North Essex Mental Health NHS Trust, and Essex police for all doing their bit to make the life of carers better.
The life of a carer is a hard one, though rewarding, and those with disabilities want and deserve to be in their own home with family rather than institutionalised. We can’t thank those who have helped us enough.
A R Wainwright
Halstead, Essex
Bankers abroad
There is a simple solution for dealing with those bankers who go abroad so as to escape the one-off 50 per cent tax on their bonuses – once abroad, they aren’t allowed back into the UK until they pay the tax (with interest of course).
Gordon Whitehead
Copt Hewick, North Yorkshire
Can’t win
When VAT was decreased from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent, all the comments from the experts said that it was a waste of time, “too small to make any difference”. Now it is going back up to 17.5 per cent, apparently it is going to “stop the recovery in its tracks”. Is this just the congenital depression of economists?
Kenn Virr
Chippenham, Wiltshire
Firm foundations
Sean O’Grady seems to be under the misapprehension that Paul Samuelson was primarily an econometrician: he wasn’t, he was a first-class theoretical economist (15 December). His greatest contribution to the subject was his seminal work The Foundations of Economic Analysis. In 1970 I suggested to my first-year students that they buy Samuelson’s Economics, the book that O’Grady seems to be familiar with. One of them arrived with the Foundations. I suspect that Sean O’Grady made a similar mistake, but in reverse.
Noel Lee
Enfield, Middlesex
Tory tables
Having been an educational researcher for six years I find Michael Gove’s proposal to maintain tests and league tables on the grounds of “sharp accountability” ironically superficial. The issue of school performance is far more complex, involving certain elements which you can measure and many which you cannot, such as the ability of schools to help create happy children.
Kartar Uppal
West Bromwich, West Midlands
Bad terms
Like Damien Maguire (letters, 17 December), I too rue the “intermsofication” of the English language. He might like to savour this pearl from a BBC Radio Wales football commentator: “It’s easing off now, in terms of the rain.”
Brian Lile
Llanilar, Ceredigion

Times:

Sir, Sadly, the failure of the Copenhagen climate change summit was no surprise (report, Dec 21). Great vision was lacking. But politicians who think long term don’t get elected, an inherent problem with our “democracies”. The root problem facing our planet — too many polluting human beings — was not addressed. Until we have population control, progress is unlikely.
Jonathan Hicks
Bournemouth, Dorset
Sir, Copenhagen had its predictable outcome. Elected and self-appointed representatives were unable to agree on how to ensure the survival of mankind. The age of science has not been accompanied by an age of reason.
Our politicians will return from debating climate change to concentrate on the task of restoring consumption to its former glory, because it is the only known method of distributing wealth and providing the taxes that finance government.
Nick Gamble
High Peak, Derbyshire
Sir, We bemoan the failure of governments to reach a meaningful agreement at Copenhagen, but why should they before we, collectively, take action ourselves. We could choose to help the environment by having fewer children, travelling less by air on holidays, by not replacing items until they are worn out and by having smaller cars, to name a few. But collectively we don’t. Not until this attitude changes can anything meaningful be done, or if done by government, can the consequences be accepted by the populace.
Clive Lees
Bromley, Kent
Sir, Despite the muted fanfare with which some bleary-eyed politicians have greeted the Copenhagen accord, future generations will rightly ask whether the thousands of return flights for delegates and endless cups of strong coffee to keep them awake was — quite literally — worth the energy.
Gregory Madden
London N2
Sir, Eurostar seems to have been taken aback by temperatures changes on the way to Paris (report, Dec 21). I must conclude this is because of the sudden change from fahrenheit to celsius. At the same time the Copenhagen climate summit failed to agree to limit a rise in temperature.
The moral seems to be clear: change all temperatures to celsius.
The subtle inflation evident in the decimalisation scam in the 1970s points the way for any self-repecting bean-counter to easily mask the 2C, thus eliminating climate change and making it safer to travel on Eurostar to Paris. For my part, I will be looking to increase the security on my e-mail account.
Stephen J. Johnson
Mirfield, W Yorks
Sir, When the Roman Catholic Church elects a new pope the cardinals are incarcerated in the Sistine Chapel and the doors locked until a new pope is elected. Only then are they let out. It is remarkable how successful this has proved over the centuries.
Had the same process been adopted in order to achieve a genuine result in Copenhagen, the outlook for the planet’s future would be more positive than it is at the moment.
David Thompson
Sampford Brett, Somerset
Sir, What has just emerged is being called the “Copenhagen accord”.
If that’s an accord, what would a discord sound like?
Michael Bird
London SW13

Sir, Further to the letter (Dec 19) from US physicists concerning the cuts in British nuclear research, how many times have such letters been written before? Parliament has repeatedly undermined to the point of near destruction British scientific and technical endeavour.
I was a member of a team with three Nobel prizewinners. In 1958 the funding was cut for fusion research and at once a similar letter appeared in The Times. The team dispersed and the work was in abeyance for practically 25 years. All those who now plan extraordinary spending post-Copenhagen should remember that decision. Fusion energy could be a key source of clean energy and here now with Britain in a lead position. Furthermore it can be economically viable, which windmills can never be.
The same, in one form or another, can be said of our research in nuclear power, aircraft, electronics and computing, astrophysics and many branches of “high technology”. One classic example often quoted is the development of X-ray-computed tomography. Always the race finishes with our competitors reaping the advantages of our earlier work and this country becoming progressively more impoverished.
We now face massive unemployment of young people because of these repeated failures. The consequences of the “dumbing down” of education at all levels reinforces the death wishes of our leaders.
Hugh Jones
Swansea

David Cage wrote:
Hugh Jones is wrong. We slightly undervalue research but totally undervalue engineering. Even when we have any useful research we do nothing with it. We are constantly told that climate change is completely proven. in that case cut all funds and transfer them to engineering solutions immediately. Start with solar powered air conditioning plant development which while useless here now if the science is as proven as they say it is will be a huge money spinner.

Sir, I do not share Loraine Brown’s view of cheques (“Banking on cheques”, letter, Dec 19). I am a widow of 84, do all my banking online and only use cheques for family presents. My son, who runs an internet company, can’t wait for their demise: “They involve a visit to the bank and take days to clear.”
Unlike Ms Brown, I enjoy texting, have two mobiles and take my iPod to the gym. Roll on technology.
Jill Ashley Miller
Beccles, Suffolk
Sir, I hope I die before cheques become obsolete. Like Loraine Brown I am a widow in my eighties living alone, with my family scattered far and wide, and I do not get out very much. I would not be able to cope without my chequebook and fear being forced into a care home merely for the lack of one.
Mrs A. Burgess
Watford, Herts
Sir, As a senior citizen with two credit cards, an e-mail address, a mobile phone and a busy social life, I too have a need for cheques. Like other correspondents, I use them as gifts in birthday and Christmas cards and also to pay tradesmen for work done on my house.
Moreover, I use them to pay deposits and balances on holidays, days out and theatre visits, and to pay an annual subscription. In addition, a group of friends and I take turns in organising theatre visits, often involving train travel, to Stratford and London, as well as to more local theatres such as the Lowry, the Royal Exchange and Bolton Octagon.
It is much better for each of us to pay the organiser by cheque; otherwise there would be a visit by each of us to a cash machine, and one person then carrying round a large amount of cash and hence an emergency trip to the bank for the organiser.
Judith Towler
Wigan, Lancs
Sir, When cheques are no longer available, and an electronic method of payment is inappropriate, I will be forced to write directly to my bank instructing them to pay funds from my account to whomsoever requires paying. To save time, I will pre-print these instructions. I might even staple them together into a little booklet, for ease of use.
You never know, my idea might even catch on.
Tom Chapman
Hitchin, Herts

Sir, Tony Blair wonders why he is more highly regarded in other countries than he is here (“Tony Blair ‘must show more humility over Iraq’, says biographer”, Times Online, Dec 20).
The answer is obvious: we know much more about him.
Professor Michael W. Eysenck
Department of Psychology
Royal Holloway, University of London

Sir, The report (Dec 18) that the Queen is travelling more by train explains the helpful sign at Hyde Park Corner Tube station telling one to get off there for Buckingham Palace.
Jenny Gorsuch
Little Chalfont, Bucks

Sir, A lot of the problems with elderly bus passengers (letters, Dec 15, 16, 17 and 18), of whom I am one, stems from the aggressive manner in which modern bus drivers drive. I am appalled at the “don’t care” attitude of some when stopping and starting. One has to clutch each pole when moving down the gangway and then finish up the last couple of yards at a run as one is thrown down to the platform. Please, drivers, drive buses a little more sympathetically.
Vivienne Sadler
Solihull, W Midlands

Sir, It will probably continue to snow in the UK over the next few days. Roads will be difficult. Trains may be delayed. Schools will close. Salt may run out. Then, as night follows day, you will receive letters telling you that they manage OK in Moscow, Peking and New York with ten times more snow than we ever see.
I beg you, do not publish these letters. I do not want my taxes spent on snow ploughs and salt mountains for something that almost never happens and, if we are to believe what we were told in Copenhagen, may never happen here again.
Philip Warner
Cadnam, Hants

Telegraph:

SIR – It is no surprise that the Copenhagen climate talks disintegrated over China’s refusal to allow external monitoring of targets (report, December 21). Only the most naïve idealist could have seriously believed that China was really intent on reducing emissions.
If I were Chinese, looking to make my country a global economic superpower, the easiest way to achieve that goal would be to persuade Western economies to sign up to an economically damaging programme of reductions by pretending to do the same. By the time the West realised the pretence, it would be too late to reverse the damage.
 

Small wonder the Chinese didn’t want external monitoring.
Nigel Cowan
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – Copenhagen was doomed to failure because half the planet isn’t convinced that man-driven climate change is happening. On the other hand, everyone must realise that the resources of this planet are finite and that we should accept responsible stewardship for our world on behalf of future generations. That, surely, is a concept everyone can agree on.
Huw Baumgartner
Bridell, Pembrokeshire
SIR – Following the debacle of Copenhagen, it is time for our political establishment to listen to the public on climate change. We don’t believe it. We won’t vote for it. And we aren’t going to pay for it.
Roger Helmer MEP (Con)
Brussels
SIR – I have yet to hear who would enforce any legally binding agreements had they had been made (Letters, December 21). Are we to expect UN sanctions against any country which fails to meet its supposed obligations?
As ours is the only country which has passed laws creating a legal obligation to meet carbon dioxide emission targets, will we have to send ourselves to jail – or will it suffice merely to incarcerate the Prime Minister?
Bernard Kerrison
London SW4
SIR – Why were Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy in attendance?
Surely only President Herman van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton should have been there – or don’t they actually represent the EU?
C. F. Goodall
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – In the 1980s, there was acid rain. In the 1990s, there was a hole in the ozone layer. In the Noughties, there was global warming.
The Tens leaves me feeling tense.
Ivor Yeo
Bristol
Royal railway travel
SIR – Ian Hall (Letters, December 21) is correct in noting that there is a history of members of the Royal family travelling by ordinary passenger services, but it is not quite as simple as he suggests. Usually, if a member of the Royal family used a public service, then a private saloon would be attached for their use. All the large railway companies had such vehicles for occasional use, which could be privately hired. The London and North Western referred to them as “semi-royal saloons”.
During and after the Second World War, a code word was introduced for the different types of royal train use. “Grove” was for the train exclusively for royal use and “Deepdene” for when a member of the Royal family was travelling on an ordinary service in a saloon.
The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret made a great deal of use of such facilities, but this more or less ended in the 1970s.
Queen Victoria’s daughters, Princesses Helena and Victoria, used a Lynton and Barnstaple Railway narrow gauge train in 1905. Their niece, Princess Victoria, the King’s sister, complained to Viscount Churchill, chairmen of the Great Western Railway, after travelling to Badminton for Christmas in 1924 that “her” first-class compartment had been filled up with rowdy miners returning to South Wales and that she had to travel on her luggage in the corridor.
David Pearson
Haworth, West Yorkshire
Cornish carols
SIR – Rupert Christiansen says that the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was invented for the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge to mark the end of the First World War (December 17).
The form of service actually predates the war, being initiated by Bishop Edward White Benson, first Bishop of Truro, on Christmas Eve, 1880, in a temporary wooden “cathedral” where diocesan services were held while the cathedral was being built.
The most south-westerly diocese ought to be credited with this first – it is a contribution to the Christian Christmas traditions of which Cornwall may be proud.
Len Michell
St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly
Don’t say you are bored
SIR – As a small boy I quickly learnt that one did not become bored (Letters, December 21).
Upon telling my parents that I was bored, I was immediately give a disagreeable job such as weeding a flower-bed or cleaning silver.
David Balch
Wimborne, Dorset
SIR – Whenever my children complained of being bored, I told them that boredom was a sign of low intelligence. They soon found something to do.
Joan Hicks
Northampton
Modern-day nativity plays
SIR – My daughter-in-law confessed this week that, some years ago, her daughter came home from school to announce that she was a cornflake in the school nativity play (report, December 15).
This puzzled my daughter-in-law, but the child insisted, so she went ahead and dressed her in flowing yellow robes, only to find out that on she was the only yellow snowflake on stage. The other snowflakes were quite envious.
Brian Simpson
Burbage, Leicestershire
Christmas messages
SIR – In his Christmas message, the Prime Minister told troops in Afghanistan that this year had tested their resolve more than any other (report, December 20).
In my Christmas message to Gordon Brown, I can tell him that he and his Government have had a similar effect upon me.
Lt Col Richard King-Evans (rtd)
Hambye, France
Gamekeeper and squire
SIR – It was the late Sir David Scott’s wife, Valerie Finnis, who in 1972 bought the painting by James Lobley of the gamekeeper and the squire (Letters, December 21). It remained in the collection until its sale last year to provide funds for the Finnis Scott Foundation, which provides grants for a range of activities that are reflected in the picture: from gardening to the arts.
Sir David was certain that the painting shows a disgruntled gamekeeper remonstrating with a laconic bachelor landowner, because things have become so bad that he is forced to feed himself on turnips. He proffers a sample of the vegetable to see if his employer, who is momentarily looking up from his books, would like to share his diet.
Few will forget Sir David’s vivid performance of playing out the scene of this picture in his book-strewn drawing room at Boughton. Here, though, there was never a thought that manual labour was as far away as in the picture. The lawn mower, for one thing, was often kept stationed near the window bay for a quick start and rapid exit to the garden outside when the weather was good.
James Miller
Slapton, Northamptonshire
Borrowed billions
SIR – The CBI thinks the recession is ending (report, December 21).
I might believe them if we were not borrowing £20 billion a month.
Brian Gilbert
Hampton, Middlesex
Lords and their expenses
SIR – Following revelations (report, December 21) about the payment of expenses, now we know for certain why at least one noble peer has described the Lords as “the best club in the world”.
Roland Rench
Beckenham, Kent

Irish Times:

Sharing the pain of economic crisis
Madam, – As a primary school teacher facing yet more pay cuts, I wish to raise the issue, not of the harsh medicine we must swallow, but who is doling out the unpalatable stuff.
There is a consensus emerging as to the root causes of our current economic crash – a perilous property bubble engineered by short-sighted government, facilitated by bonus-hungry bankers, ignored by the regulator and capitalised upon by “developers” (a term I dislike having lived in one of their shoe-box apartments).
Now that the inevitable has occurred and our hubris has turned to humiliation, just who is deemed accountable and who is making reparations?
1. The same party which led us blindly to economic ruin remains atop of its perch, unabashed by its incompetence and insistent that “we are where we are” as if the current mess were as result of a surprise meteor shower rather than the consequence of its own policies. Politicians do not pay for their mistakes.
2. The bankers who gambled stupidly, heaped 100 per cent debt over 35 years upon young teachers and flung money at any gombeen with a hard hat and a harder neck, remain unrepentant too. The only difference is that now the bank directors are protected by billions of taxpayers’ euro from receiving the market’s true judgment on their performance. And so they grumble about a mere salary of €500,000. Bankers do not pay for their mistakes.
3. Patrick Neary, the former regulator, received €630,000 as a final thanks for so diligently not noticing the secret director’s loans and impending banking meltdown. The watchman doesn’t pay for his mistakes.
4. The helicopter class who whooped it up on the back of over-priced houses and over-zealous zoning have also found deliverance. No debtors’ prison for those who owe millions, no embarrassing court appearances or repossessions, as Nama agrees to purchase their most toxic debts and pay an extra €7,000,000,000 for the privilege of taking the heat off our gallant developers. Those in the tent at the Galway Races are not expected to pay for their mistakes.
The price, we now see, is to paid by the “little people”. The peasants are to put their shoulder to wheel – the carers, the blind, the newly unemployed, even the reviled public sector worker, they can all contribute handsomely. That we do so with such docility says, I feel, more about us as citizens than it does about our “betters” who are emboldened as they observe us acquiesce to unprecedented cuts.
I would take a pay cut and justify to my students the cuts in education generally if I believed for a moment that there had been the radical reform of the political, banking, regulatory and planning systems to ensure we don’t wind up here again.
What galls me is to see a country at odds with itself and the burden placed on the backs of the low paid while those chiefly responsibly must struggle to keep a straight face as they reflect on their good fortune to remain in high office. This crisis reveals a sickness at the heart of our Republic and it falls to ordinary people to address this root cause rather than cut painfully at the symptoms.
I commend all who resist the current agenda and demand that, if there be unpleasant cures to be endured, at least there be new, trusted physicians to administer them. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH FOGARTY,
Principal,
Corballa National School,
Co Sligo.
Madam, – I am writing in shock more than anger. I have just read that Bord Gais workers are to receive 3.5 per cent pay rises. This follows the Dáil’s decision to take an extra week’s paid leave post Christmas.
I am a psychiatric nurse. I am working Christmas Day for double time and Christmas Eve for no extra (I am taking a 7.5 per cent pay cut for this). I am also back working on Monday with no time off. Fairness? Please give me a break and people, stop telling me how lucky I am. Goodbye Ireland soon, please God; away to a country that respects me. I am not angry any more, but genuinely upset and demoralised. – Your, etc,
DAVID ROBAN,
Seafield Road East,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
Response to clerical child abuse report
Madam, – Martin Long, Director of the Catholic Communication Office (December 10th), in response to my letter on clerical sex abuse, accused me of making a statement that “was both wrong in fact and a seriously damaging assertion.”
He added, “the rules, referred to by Fr McDonagh are those contained in Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela – (The safeguarding of the Sanctity of the Sacraments) and they were issued in 2001”. In fact, the document I was referring to begins with the words “Ad exsequendam ecclesiasticam legem – (In order to fulfill the ecclesiastical law.) It came from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and was published on May 18th, 2001.
I am not the only person to have expressed concern about these two Roman documents. Garret FitzGerald (Opinion, December 19th) praised Rome for recognising the seriousness of the abuse of children, but went on to write, “the accompanying requirement that secrecy be maintained about these crimes showed an equally horrific disregard for the interests of the children. Our bishops clearly saw this secrecy provision as precluding them from reporting to the Garda.”
The solicitor Pearse Mehigan also argued convincingly in your paper (December 7th “Jail is penalty for concealing child sex abuse”) that failure to report to the police is a crime under the Criminal Law Act 1997. The penalty is up to 10 years in jail.
The point of my original letter was to challenge those who are calling for the resignation of bishops who served as auxiliary bishops in the archdiocese of Dublin. If these men are forced to resign, then many other bishops who have served since the early 1990s should also be called on to resign, because I am sure a tribunal would criticise how these bishops handled some abuse cases historically. But calls for resignations should not stop at the Irish Sea. The Murphy report makes it clear that complaints about child sexual abuse were handled very badly by the ecclesiastical authorities in Ireland. But Rome’s record is not great either. Cardinal Bernard Law was the Ordinary of the Archdiocese of Boston during the time when a number of priests sexually assaulted children.
He moved these priests from parish to parish and they continued to abuse. Rather than being censured by Rome for his neglect and forced to resign, he was promoted and made archpriest of one of the most important churches in Rome, the Basilica of Mary Major. He is still in this position today.
It is generally believed that the late Pope John Paul II was so impressed by the ostensible loyalty and piety of the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Fr Marcial Marciel that he refused to believe that he was a serial abuser and protected him.
Should this now derail his beatification next year? In 1999, an inquiry into the accusations against Father Maciel was shelved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was Prefect. I am sure that, had the case come before a competent inquiry such as the one carried out by Judge Yvonne Murphy, serious questions would have been asked about the role of everyone, including that of Cardinal Ratzinger. Should he now resign as well?– Yours, etc,
Fr SEÁN McDONAGH,
St Columban’s,
Dalgan Park,
Navan,
Co Meath.
Madam, – Why is the deliberate, repeated cover-up of child sex crimes by clergy continually called a “failure?” . One can only fail if one sincerely tries. Catholic bishops then haven’t “failed to protect children”. They weren’t trying to protect children.
As the Murphy report, and other independent investigations elsewhere have found, the church hierarchy has consistently tried only to save its reputation and assets, not youngsters. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CLOHESSY,
National Director,
Survivors Network of those
Abused by Priests,
Arsenal Street,
St Louis,
Missouri, US.
A chara, – The Pope’s response to the cover-up of clerical child sexual abuse: the pastoral letter in one hand and the Vatican’s diplomatic immunity in the other hand!  (World View, December 19th). – Is mise,
SOLINE HUMBERT,
Avoca Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Public support for sex offender
Madam, – I live in Galway, but am from Listowel. It distresses me to see the reputation of the town tarnished by the 50 men who showed such public support for Danny Foley after he had been found guilty of sexual assault. I hold the hope that in showing their support for Mr Foley, they nevertheless condemn the crime he was convicted of.
The courageous young woman who brought this case deserves compassion and support. She continues to be victimised by those who damn her for standing up for herself. I believe that Listowel will recover because I believe – and hope – that the majority of its townsfolk will stand by this young woman.
But Listowel is a town and at the centre of this is a human being who has been traumatised and robbed of a precious part of her humanity. It behoves us all to help her in her recovery, just as it does to help the recovery of all victims of sexual abuse. To lose confidence and trust in oneself, to lose trust in others, to lose hope and to live in fear is a far greater sentence than seven years in jail with two suspended. – Yours, etc,
CHRISTIAN O’REILLY,
New Road,
Galway.
Gender-based violence
A chara, – We the undersigned deplore all forms of gender-based violence, whether a once off attack or part of an ongoing cycle of intimidation and violence, whether in the privacy of homes or in public places; applaud survivors who have the courage to challenge the perpetrators by breaking the cycle or through pursuing prosecution; offer the hand of support when taking those first frightening steps of challenge and holding that hand along the way.
Encourage all to denounce gender-based violence in our society, for the protection of children, men and women. – Is mise,
HILARY SCANLAN, Chair,
Tralee Women’s Resource
Centre, Tralee; ANNE MARIE
FOLEY, Co-ordinator Adapt
Kerry’s Women’s Refuge,
Tralee; TESS DAUGHTON,
Chair, Accord, Tralee;
CATHERINE CASEY,
Co-ordinator, Open Door
Network, Tralee; BERNIE
KENNEDY, Chair, South West
Kerry Women’s Association,
O’Connell Centre, Caherciveen
BERNIE MOORE,
Chair, Men Overcoming Violent
Emotion, Tralee, Co Kerry.
Europe’s role in climate change
Madam, – Frank McDonald’s summation of the Copenhagen climate summit makes for depressing reading (Opinion, December 21st). I was especially struck by the second last sentence of the piece which said “And it’s all happening without a nod in the direction of the old world – notably Europe”.
As the European Union is the largest and richest trading bloc in the world, maybe it is time to remind other countries who do deals behind our backs of that fact. After all, wasn’t Lisbon about making the EU a bigger player on the world stage? – Yours, etc,
PAUL WILLIAMS,
Circular Road,
Kilkee, Co Clare.
Abbey moving to the GPO
Madam, – Louis Lentin (December 17th) may well be correct about the dimensions of the GPO making it unsuitable for a theatre. I would, however, like to see the views of some theatre architects on it before the idea is dismissed in the manner Mr Lentin dismisses the NCH and Imma as being housed in a former exam hall and hospital. If Paris had adopted this attitude it would never have housed one of its finest art collections in a disused railway station (Gare D’Orsay).
For me, a visit to the theatre is not just about the performance and the building. It also might include a meal, a drink, a cup of coffee, a chance to meet friends in a convivial area close to, but not in, the theatre. Siting the Abbey in the GPO would meet these extra needs far better than somewhere deep in docklands. It would also provide a focus for the continued improvement of O’Connell Street, making it something akin the Unter Den Linden in Berlin where both the Berlin Staatsoper and the Oper Komische are both located. – Yours, etc,
SEAN HIGGINS,
Whitechurch Road,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
Answer to our energy needs?
Madam, – The view of ESRI’s Prof John FitzGerald and Laura Malaguzzi Valeri (Opinion, December 17th) that “Irish electricity prices could be reduced by extensive wind generation” is delusional.
The one certainty about wind is that it does not blow on demand. In fact, wind is typically absent when most needed, like in winter, in times of high pressure, coldest temperatures, peak power demand, but no wind. Therefore wind power must always be 100 per cent backed up by conventional power plants fully fired-up and consuming fossil fuels.
Consequently, wind power is always an extra add-on cost to the consumer.
But the real scandal is that we are forced, by Government policy, to purchase every watt of wind energy from the wind moguls, at premium rates, even when it’s produced in the wee small hours and is totally worthless.
This is one of the reasons why we have the second highest electricity costs in Europe and the more wind power we connect to the grid the more uncompetitive we will become. – Yours, etc,
DICK KEANE,
Silchester Park,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Child protection in primary schools
Madam, – Fr Patrick McCafferty (December 19th) is spot-on in challenging the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) in respect of its statements concerning child protection in Catholic national schools.
As a guardian of two children at Kilgobnet NS, I was so alarmed when IPPN’s broadcast its concerns that first thing on Friday morning I went into the children’s school and asked to see the relevant school policies. The policies immediately put my mind at rest in that it is the school principal, as designated liaison person, who plays the key part in alerting HSE and Garda of any child protection concerns.
When recently I volunteered to do some very minimal voluntary work with Kerry Diocesan Youth Service, I was vigorously vetted by the Garda and underwent a full one-day course in child protection procedures. This, although I am qualified and registered as a teacher.
I trust that the 80 per cent of primary school principals with deep-rooted concerns, themselves mostly appointed by representatives of diocesan trustees, would have a little more confidence in themselves and those who appointed them. – Yours, etc,
ALAN WHELAN,
Beaufort,
Co Kerry.
Young people and sex
Madam, – You carried a report on a High Court case relating to the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 (Home News, December 17th). As a witness, I gave evidence on a number of issues including recent studies of the sexual behaviour of young people in Ireland. Unfortunately, your report of what I said was selective and misleading. I had in fact placed a lot of weight on the findings of the Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationshipsby Layte et al (2006). They found that, in a nationally representative sample, the median age at which the group of 18-24 year old young adults had experienced sexual intercourse was 17. This applied to both men and women.
The mean age for women was 17.4 and for men 16.9. The statistics you reported came from studies of non-representative groups of young people. The mean age at first sexual intercourse of 15.5 years applied to sample of young people in Galway and the figure of 13.5 applied to a study of early school leavers. I mentioned these latter studies as examples of the point that rates vary according to the circumstances of young people. However it is important that smaller and less representative studies are not seen as reflective of national averages. – Yours, etc,
SHEILA GREENE,
AIB Professor of Childhood
Research, Director, Children’s
Research Centre,
Trinity College Dublin.
Time for the Angelus to go?
Madam, – I would be pleasantly surprised if an equivalent daily prime-time reminder by RTÉ of the opinions of atheists would be greeted with the same level of respect and tolerance that Frank Farrell (December 18th) expects from those who do not share his beliefs.
Shall we put this theory to the test? – Yours, etc,
NICK HILLIARD,
De Courcey Square,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9.
Beatle outshines over-hyped ’stars’
Madam, – I attended the Paul McCartney concert in the O2 on Sunday night.
If ever there was an example of how hard work and dedication spent learning your craft helped achieve success, this was it. I suggest that some of the over-packaged, over-hyped and over-dubbed “stars” of today take a look at how it should be done.
I spent a lot of money on tickets for this show, but spending almost three hours in the company of this man was worth every cent. There were no gimmicks, no backing tracks, no AutoTune, but a fantastic band and someone who you can justifiably call a living legend, made for an amazing evening for all present.
Oh, that we would all look, sound and move that well at 67. He may not be my favourite Beatle, but long may he continue to entertain when all the modern acts have faded from memory. – Yours, etc,
VICKEY HOWELL,
Ennafort Avenue,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.
Neck and neck
Madam, – I understand that Dublin Zoo is seeking suggestions for the naming of its new baby giraffe. I suggest Nama. I mean, the animal does have some neck. – Yours, etc,
PETER THOMPSON,
Ferrybank,
Arklow,
Co Wicklow.

Well I must be off

best wishes John

Snow

December 21, 2009 by johnblakey

Snow 21 December 2009

`Its dark and cold we get a tiny flutter of more snow, but there it lies icy and cold. Kitten gingerly re-starts her house patrol looking rather irritable once around the house and straight back in to curl up in the middle of the hall carpet. Why she has to lie there I have no idea, there are a lot more warmer places to lie, and there is always the omnipresent danger of being tripped over, most disagreeable. Puddy huddles in front of the hot air grid as if her life depended on it, poor old cat she does not like the cold.
Well my phone surrenders or rather I am slowly getting the hang of it I get the Men from the Ministry on to its card and set the radio stations. If only one could set the data so that it worked for all types of phones, so that if it were lost or stolen then I wouldn’t have to go through all this again with the replacement. Tomorrow I shall attempt to set up my email on it and put on The Clithero Kid.
I finish Denis Healey’s book The Time of My Life, the best thing in it was the aplume by which Eda accepted the gift of the severed head of a Japanese soldier. They were visiting Borneo and meeting a local tribe to be presented by this obviously valuable gift. Not wanting to offend their hosts she managed to convey every evidence of delight at this gift and present her much loved and valuable watch in return. The head imported into the UK as a ‘cultural artifact’ resided in the Ministry of Defense, where one day it was found by the cleaning lady who promptly fainted. Its still presumably there, somewhere.
Having finished Denis Healey I am now reading Eda’s side in her book Part of the Pattern, she is not bad but does not write quite as well as Denis who had the inestimable gift of making supposedly boring subjects interesting.
Salmon and rice and salad, we watch Passport to Plimico http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport_to_Pimlico The buildings are still damaged by bombs and it looks bleak to think what that area of London would be worth nowadays. Done at times in semi-documentary style its a delight. With all the characters great and small rising to the occasion. The destruction of the hated identity cards was a particularly poignant moment.

Postcards

The Rock of Cashel, Co Tipperary, Ireland

The Rock of Cashel, Co Tipperary, Ireland

The Promenade and Beach, Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, England

The Promenade and Beach, Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, England

The Harbour. Rozel Bay, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

The Harbour. Rozel Bay, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

Greetings from the Isle of Man, an Independent Island one of the British Isles

Greetings from the Isle of Man, an Independent Island one of the British Isles

A Milkmaid with Jersey Cow and Calf, Jersey Channel Islands UK

A Milkmaid with Jersey Cow and Calf, Jersey Channel Islands UK

Nice Christmassy card from Leeds twin city of Dortmund, Germany

DE 487927

Lovely Postcrossing card from Australia

AU 61222

Obituary: Alexander Piatigorsky: Russian émigré writer and philosopher

Alexander Piatigorsky, writer, philosopher and Professor Emeritus of the History of South Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, was a charismatic figure well known in Russian intellectual circles.
He wrote numerous scholarly articles on Buddhist and Hindu mythology, and several books, including The Buddhist Philosophy of Thought (1984), Mythological Deliberations (1993) and Who’s Afraid of Freemasons? (1997), a bestselling exploration of religious belief.
Piatigorsky, who spent the last 30 years of his life in London, having escaped the Soviet Union in the 1970s, also wrote several novels in Russian, one of which won the Andrei Bely prize in 2000.
Alexander Piatigorsky was born in Moscow in 1929. He spent some of his adolescence beyond the Urals where his father, Moisey Piatigorsky, an engineer and a manager in the new-born Soviet steel industry, was evacuated with his factory during the Second World War.
After graduation from Moscow State University and a stint as a school teacher in Stalingrad, Piatigorsky joined the Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow, as a specialist in Tamil languages and Hindu studies. While there he compiled the first Tamil-Russian dictionary, and was associated with the so-called Moscow-Tartu school of semiotics (an analysis of signs and symbols in literary texts).
With his friend Mirab Mamardashvili he wrote Symbol and Consciousness, which might be loosely summarised as expounding a hybrid of Buddhism with Husserlian phenomenology. The tract was read widely in the nonpolitical dissident circles in which they moved and contributed eventually to his being expelled from the Institute of Oriental Studies.
In the 1970s, as a result of pressure from the US, many Jewish members of the Soviet intelligentsia, Piatigorsky among them, were allowed by the authorities to leave the Soviet Union with one-way tickets to the West. He made his way first to Israel and, a couple of years later, to the UK.
This expulsion marked a crucial turn in his thinking. The move to the West had, so to speak, put the Iron Curtain between him and his former friends and enemies. It also exposed the centre of his intellectual preoccupations — the conflict between the Russian intelligentsia and the Soviet state. Or, rather, the lack of it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6963255.ece

Letters:

Guardian:

David McKie’s lighthearted take on the decision by the Payments Council to phase out cheques misses some crucial points (A fond farewell to the cheque, 16 December). Cheques are pretty secure. If you’ve stolen a cheque book and don’t know what the owner’s signature looks like and don’t have the guarantee card, you won’t get far, unlike when someone gains access to your credit card details given by computer. The huge growth of internet fraud is encouraged by the strong push by banks and others to get as many payments online as possible. The decline in cheque use is partly because some organisations have chosen to stop accepting them – as well as behaviour like HSBC’s, which has told me it no longer automatically replaces cheque books, but waits for me to ask – rather than by consumer demand.
Moreover, while the victims hardest hit by this trend are older people, others are hit too. I’m a long-distance walker, often staying in B&Bs in remote areas. Many of these can’t take credit cards, but it used to be fine to pay by cheque. Now more and more demand cash. As many rural communities have no cash machines, and walkers have other costs, this results in people going to cash machines, taking out £150 or £200 and walking around with it. Back, then, to the age of gold coins in leather bags, and swords to fight off bandits?
Simon Banks
Harwich, Essex
• As a specialist who helps small enterprises protect their transactions I have come upon numerous occasions where banks and payment processing intermediaries have refused to provide card processing services. If new and small enterprises are blocked from taking electronic payments the only conclusion is that they either abandon trade or focus on accepting cash, as there appears to be no other alternative on offer when cheques cease to be issued.
This move is another burden to add to any new entrepreneur wanting to trade. Is this the future of the country, where every new and small enterprise is blocked by the banks as unprofitable?
Michael Bond
Stockport, Cheshire
• Do you remember when the banks decided that their internal administration was more important than the needs of their customers, and that all branches should close at 3.30pm? This lasted for many years until the building societies decided to offer competition, and suddenly their customers’ preferences were remembered. The phasing out of the cheque with no useful alternative identified is a further example of the insensitivity of the banks to the needs of their customers.
PF Ravenscroft
Alton, Hampshire
• It is precisely the stubs, and their role in “bringing you painfully face to face with all your more recent extravagances”, as David McKie puts it, that are the most powerful argument for retaining cheques. I have often wondered how people who make frequent use of debit and credit cards, and use cash machines without requesting a receipt, do their accounting, and have concluded that most of them probably don’t bother.
So isn’t phasing out cheques just inviting people to be even more reckless with their money? If all one is going to be offered in their place, as a record of one’s expenditure, is a flimsy slip that is easily lost, surely that is not a good practice to encourage? Of course, banks and retailers have a vested interest in people living beyond their means; but why is the Payments Council backing them up?
Jim Grozier
Brighton
• The planned demise of the cheque has no doubt been raised on the advice of the banks’ PR advisers – anything to divert attention from their catastrophic mismanagement. In this case their spokeswoman opined that cheques must go because, being invented in the 17th century, “they are evidently obsolete”. Presumably she manages her life without the benefit of such inventions as the wheel. Surely this is another argument in favour of a People’s Bank, providing cheque book services and run, I suggest, by the Post Office.
David Hayes
Bristol

Reports that CIA agents may be helping their Palestinian security counterparts to torture prisoners (Special report, 18 December) are bad enough. What is more of a concern to me, though, is that Palestinians, for so long holding the moral ground in the struggle for justice in the Holy Land, could actually torture their fellow Palestinians; this concern applies equally whether the alleged torturers belong to Fatah or Hamas. Even more worrying is that Said Abu-Ali, the Palestinian Authority’s interior minister, has sought to excuse what is happening because such abuses “happen in every country in the world”. So that makes it OK, then. Astonishing. And he’s a minister in the government regarded as the “moderates” by the US, Europe and Britain.
Ibrahim Hewitt
Senior editor, Middle East Monitor
• That the CIA has been supporting torturers in the Palestinian security forces should come as no surprise. The CIA has a long history of training foreign security forces in torture techniques, even though they were forbidden in the US itself (until Bush and Cheney decided it was time to remove the kid gloves). The CIA helped train the Shah of Iran’s notorious Savak secret police, the Pakistani secret services and a whole list of paramilitary forces in Central America.
During its war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, its infamous training manual, demonstrating the use of torture techniques, became public and caused widespread outrage. If Obama wishes to retain any humanitarian credibility, he should clean up the CIA and outlaw all torture techniques and their export.
John Green
London

Your front-page article (17 December) is far too critical of Prince Charles’s letter writing. Surely it’s a positive thing that he continues to engage in the epistolary art, and if the contents of his letters are a little quirky, then that too is the traditional prerogative of the letter writer.
Keith Flett
London
• As a republican, I have no problem with Prince Charles lobbying ministers. I would have a problem if his views were given any more weight than mine.
Jenny Haynes
Barton on Humber, North Lincolnshire
• What are we coming to? We’ll have unelected Lords trying to influence government policy next.
George Finch
Winchester, Hampshire

The ISA will not “vet every adult who comes into regular contact with children outside the home” (Comment, 17 December). Our role within the vetting and barring scheme is to make decisions as to whether a person should be barred from working with vulnerable groups and in doing so maintain our children’s barred list and vulnerable adults list. The ISA will only consider that small proportion of information provided by employers, police or professional bodies that suggests someone might pose a risk of harm to the vulnerable, and we will bar only those who are assessed as posing a future risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults.
The information on the ISA website is accurate. The police have a legal duty to refer information that they consider appropriate in the context of preventing harm to the vulnerable. That decision is for the chief officer of police. This has nothing to do with the independence of ISA decision-making. The ISA will disclose any information to the person under consideration – there are no secrets. If the police say information cannot be disclosed, we will not consider it. Those considered for barring have (except in the case of the most serious of criminal convictions where the ISA is under a statutory obligation to bar) the opportunity to put their side of the story to us.
Rumour and innuendo will be of little or no value to the ISA and we will always ask people to take any concerns to the police, employer or other statutory body for investigation, as we do not have investigatory powers. We are and will remain committed to balanced, fair and consistent decision-making.
Adrian McAllister
Chief executive, Independent Safeguarding Authority

Zoe Williams’s accusation that our position on the marketing of junk food to children is “pompous to the point of inaccuracy” (Let’s be honest, 17 December) is shortsighted and confused, though her article is certainly timely. The facts that have informed our campaigning and lobbying for well over a decade are fully established: tackling obesity at a young age means a significant reduction in diet-related health problems later in life. And the marketing techniques of the junk-food industry should not be taken lightly.
Billions are spent every year by companies such as Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Nestlé on convincing children to consume food and drink high in salt, sugar and fat. We’re not just talking pre-watershed TV ads, but celebrity endorsements, movie tie-ins, school sponsorship, cartoon character branding and, increasingly, embedded computer game marketing, mobile phone campaigns and online social networking techniques.
Children are particularly susceptible to these promotions as they are less able to differentiate between factual information and marketing messages, and even in their teenage years are still forming their own ideas as to what constitutes a healthy diet. Earlier this month the World Health Organisation released new recommendations on the marketing of food to children. Consumers International hopes this will lead to the development of an international code that will guide governments and provide a benchmark for food companies around the world. This is about making a real difference to a major public health crisis – not about playing politics with childhood obesity.
Joost Martens
Director general, Consumers International
• Professor David Buckingham’s report on the commercialisation of childhood says “new marketing techniques raise some concerns about fairness of marketing to children” (Young must become more advert savvy, 15 December). How ironic that at the same time, culture secretary Ben Bradshaw is keen to get one of these new techniques – product placement – into UK-made TV programmes.
How can we expect children to become more “media savvy” when product placement deliberately makes it harder for parents and children to spot when they are being advertised to? This blurring of the lines ruins many of our favourite programmes and will result in more marketing for products such as junk food. Given that Coca-Cola was the most placed product in the US last year, the Children’s Food Campaign is deeply worried that this new piece of commercialisation will particularly hit children’s health.
Jackie Schneider
Children’s Food Campaign

When the US president, Barack Obama, pledged to close Guantánamo, I don’t remember him saying that the remaining detainees would be transferred to indefinite detention without trial in a maximum security prison in Illinois (Report, 16 December). So, detainees who have been cleared for release and those who would walk free if they were to be granted a fair trial face years of solitary confinement, sensory deprivation and isolation incarcerated in the midwest? Meanwhile, at the US prison at Bagram, where conditions are worse than at Guantánamo, it is business as usual.
Joy Hurcombe
Save Shaker Aamer Campaign
• Does anyone believe that, as Jonathan Freedland writes, “the men and women of the US Senate are, after all, only reflecting the people who vote for them” (Obama is not saviour of the world. He’s still an American president, 16 December)? I would have thought that primarily they represent the corporate interests that fund them – in particular the oil, gas and coal industries.
J Edward Milner
London
• And the first ministers stepped from their planes from Copenhagen, waving their pieces of paper. “Peace in our time.”
Mark Morris
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• As a Spurs supporter I was pleased to see the club join the 10:10 climate change campaign. But now I see that the squad flew to Dublin for a party (Harry Redknapp set to punish Robbie Keane and Spurs partygoers, Sport, 20 December). Should I change clubs?
Andrew Dobson
Keele, Staffordshire
• May I nominate “being in a good place” as the most irritating cliche of 2009? I notice the football managers have got hold of it, so resistance may be futile.
Stuart Ballantyne
Norwich
• Staffan Widstrand’s Eyewitness full-page photo of Siberian reindeer (17 December) gets my vote as your best free wrapping paper so far this year (Letters, 19 December).
Bob Corkey

The vacuous agreement at Copenhagen was predictable. As ever, politicians acted to protect the short-term interests of their electorate, particularly economic growth. Yet protecting these interests runs counter to the long-term interests of everyone: reducing carbon dioxide below 350 parts per million in the atmosphere (currently 387 ppm); and keeping global warming under 1.5C.
To escape from this predicament, we must address the two root causes: the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere; and the warming it has caused, particularly in the Arctic. We now have no choice but to employ forestry and agricultural techniques to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and bury the carbon in the ground. And we must use techniques for reflecting sunshine so as to cool areas of the planet, particularly the Arctic.
These techniques together are called “geoengineering” – the deliberate manipulation of the environment to counter the effects of global warming. Many past civilisations have survived through large engineering projects, but we are by nature reluctant to do anything on an even larger scale, in case we get it wrong.
But now the survival of our own civilisation is at stake, so we have to grasp the nettle. Fortunately there are geoengineering techniques which mimic closely what happens in nature, so that we can anticipate and avoid side-effects and be reasonably confident of success.
The most pressing problem is the warming of the Arctic, which is causing unexpectedly rapid retreat of Arctic sea ice. Here we can mimic the cooling action of volcanoes when they spew sulphate aerosol into the stratosphere. Mount Pinatubo’s eruption in June 1991 caused global cooling of 0.5C over two years. Deployment of such aerosols to cool the Arctic would probably cost less than a billion dollars a year, yet could save us from two catastrophes: multi-metre sea level rise if the Greenland ice sheet were to melt away; and multi-degree global warming if all the permafrost were to melt and release its methane.
It would be tragic if we left deployment of geoengineering too late, just because we were waiting for proof that it was required.
John Nissen
London W4
So Copenhagen had its predictable outcome. The elected and self-appointed representatives of 8 billion people were unable to agree on how to ensure the survival of mankind. The age of science has not been accompanied by an age of reason. Our politicians will return from debating climate change to concentrate on the task of restoring consumption to its former glory. Why? Because consumption is the only known method of distributing wealth and providing the taxes that finance government.
To take an example, a modest tax on large motor vehicles gains a bit of green publicity, but a draconian tax which seriously discourages the use of such vehicles would deprive individuals of their right to be profligate and the government of much-needed revenue.
Government policy on carbon emissions is thus fundamentally dishonest. On the one hand, it is willing to indulge in international debates on climate change, while, at home, it is unwilling to take the steps necessary to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
Democratic government cannot act without a popular consensus, and consensus depends on the goodwill of the people. In the UK 93 per cent of the disposable wealth is owned by 50 per cent of the population. Any change in economic management is likely to be experienced most severely by this 50 per cent. Therefore, improving the distribution of wealth is an essential precursor to achieving a consensus which will allow the government to make the radical changes necessary to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
Nick gamble
Energy Consultant
Whaley bridge, Derbyshire
I fear that this is mankind’s last century. The political class consists, mainly, of arts graduates who can structure, then win, an argument on the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. Scientists, engineers and technologists have little real power, as they are largely employed in the role of advisers.
We are faced with a ballooning world population and finite natural resources with the very real threat of global warming. It’s probable that the third world will face famine, local wars and mass migrations; but I don’t expect that there will be a concerted effort to modify our behaviour, until the waters are lapping around the likes of London or Manhattan. By then it will probably be too late, as climate change has its own momentum.
John W Knott
Sale, Cheshire
So the Copenhagen Conference has failed and we are left with just “vague intentions” rather than a legally binding agreement. Perhaps somebody could explain the difference to me.
If the UK signed up to a legally binding agreement to reduce our CO2 emissions and we failed, are all 60 million of us to be cautioned, arrested and bailed. Or will it be OK to just skulk away and let Prince Charles take the rap?
If it’s all of us, can I be first to plead insanity and ask for several thousand other offences – imperialism, slavery, unkindness to the Irish and so on – to be taken into consideration. And who is going to make the actual arrests? The World Police? International Rescue?
Personally I think having vague intentions is underrated. Nobody ever got maimed or killed by nations with vague intentions.
Pete Barrett
Colchester, Essex
The total failure of world leaders to agree anything meaningful at Copehagen makes you realise just how Noah must have felt before deciding to build his ark. It really does call into question whether it is possible to save the planet under the present economic system. World leaders cannot put aside national interests for anything, it would seem.
These talks have achieved nothing because the most developed nations have been using them simply to secure economic advantage. It would seem that too many of those with the power to make decisions are secret members of the Flat Earth Society when it comes to climate change.
Paul Donovan
London E11
Suppose a dozen qualified electricians had warned you that the wiring in your house was dangerously faulty. Would you listen instead to some bloke down the pub who told you that it was all a scam, and that house fires weren’t caused by faulty wiring but by sunspots?
So why do so many people ignore the experts when it comes to climate change?
Mike Wright
Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Who thought that Copenhagen in December would be a good place for a conference on global warming? Abu Dhabi in August might have been more convincing.
PETER SAUNDBY
Llangynidr, Powys
A rise of 2 degrees in the worldwide temperatures? Seems good to me at the moment.
Paul Brazier
Kingswood, Gloucestershire
The parents of drunken children
England’s chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has accused some parents of a “laissez-faire” approach to their children drinking alcohol. I must agree with him. I have not seen any increase in underage drinking. However there is evidence to suggest that those who are taking part in underage drinking are drinking higher alcohol content drinks.
On a visit to a York school, I was speaking to one of the local police officers. He said to me that it wasn’t like it was years ago: a cheeky cider down the park. He went on to add that the police now find children with bottles of vodka, and when the children are returned home, the parents do not understand the problem. Sometimes they are the ones who have bought the alcohol for them. Across England, 500,000 children between the ages of 11 to 15 will have been drunk in the past four weeks.
It is all very well asking what the police or schools are doing about this. If the parents do not play ball then no progress can be made.
I am increasingly finding that the parents of children who are drinking are often from lower socio-economic backgrounds and have a history of unemployment. The families cause noise nuisance to neighbours. Life expectancy is less. Not all people are like this, but it pains me as a socialist that this low-expectation cycle has still not been broken for a minority. I am still uncertain of the solution.
Councillor James Alexander
York’s Children and Young People’s Champion
Lessons of the BA union ballot
David Crawford writes: “Surely there is something right with a law that insists that unions check their voting lists before rushing into strikes” (letter, 19 december). Surely there is something wrong with a law that invalidates a vote that was supported by no fewer than 92 per cent because 800 of the 12,700 balloted were ineligible.
John Naylor
Ashford, Middlesex
Why does your travel editor, Simon Calder (18 December), take it for granted that “public wrath”" in any industrial dispute must inevitably be directed against the unions? Over the past 60 years I have experienced the effects (ranging from inconvenience to financial loss) of many strikes, and not once have I blamed the trade union that called the strike, rather than the management that provoked it.
Kevin Flynn
Pontardawe, neath port talbot
Just don’t travel
I take issue with the assumption of your report of 19 December, that Britain’s transport should be able to function normally through severe weather. Weather forecasters gave a warning at least 24 hours before the snowstorm and their advice is invariably to travel only if absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, many people seem to regard themselves as immune to the effects of bad weather and carry on regardless.
Rodney Taylor
Barton-Le-Clay, Bedfordshire
Photographic rights
My local police force has come up with a different Act to try to curtail photography in public. This came to light when I presented evidence of an offence on a cycle route gathered using a video camera on my helmet. Whilst the police agreed to take action based on the video, they said I should not take pictures in public because it could infringe people’s human rights.
Dr Clive Mowforth
Dursley, Gloucestershire
Now sue Eurostar
The latest accident on Eurostar is not the first in a growing list of catastrophic failures. Most of the time it provides a very good service, but whenever there is a failure the problems for passengers are horrendous. It is hard to believe that problems with trains entering the Channel tunnel from very cold weather outside have not occurred before in the many years that the service has been running. It is time that Eurostar were hauled through the courts, forced to confront their own failings and compelled to take action to improve matters.
Nick Chadwick
Oxford
Eurostar trains cancelled; Continent cut off.
J E S Bradshaw
Southam, Warwickshire
British way with flags
“Why not?” writes Andy McSmith (Village People, 19 December) when reporting that Andrew Rosindell MP has persuaded the House Commons authorities to fly the Union Jack daily on all flagpoles. It is a bad idea because there will no longer be a simple way of marking important occasions such the State Opening. The Palace of Westminster does not need to draw attention to itself by flying flags all the time. In this country, unlike America, it has long been the tradition to fly the national flag only on special days.
LEIGH HATTS
LONDON SE1
Mother hits back
Perhaps Anthony Bramley Harker (letter, 16 December) thinks my baby and I should just lock ourselves away for six months and not bother with school concerts, Christmas fayres or meals out, lest my “display of maternal care” (breastfeeding) distracts or offends any member of the public. What makes me despair more than me being banned from the pantomime is that there should be a debate about this. That some people think a mother breastfeeding her baby is somehow obscene astounds me. Is it any wonder we have the worst breastfeeding rates in Europe.
Angela Elliott
Welton le Marsh, Lincolnshire
French insult
Jim Cordell’s description of the French term con (letter, 18 December) is wide of the mark. It has long since ceased to be a “very rude expression” and become a mild insult in daily use. The nearest English equivalent, might be “prat”. It can be masculine or feminine (conne), a noun or an adjective.
Rod Chapman
Sarlat, france

Times:

Sir, Professor Paul Badham (letter, Dec 18) concludes that people who wish to commit suicide should be helped to do so. Jesus did not make love of neighbour the whole of the law; he put love of God first, and asked us to look always beyond this world.
Part of the implications of this is that you do not give a razor blade to someone who is self-harming, no matter how much they plead for you to do so. Nor do you give a bottle of whisky to an alcoholic. And if people are suffering and say they want to die, then Jesus’s teaching says we must both relieve their suffering and help them to find the courage to face it.
Keiran Proffer
London NW3

Trudi Morris wrote:
It’s my understanding that quality of life is of more importance to Jesus than longevity. Our Lord clearly did not design us to live forever, nor did He ensure we all lived to a ripe old age. The way I understand it, is to do your best to live right while you are here and while you can. To think of others and the effect your life/decisions have on others. To accept our part in a much, much bigger picture. It’s not about being controlled from cradle to grave in mind body and spirit it’s about expanded thinking. He encouraged people to think for themselves.

The way I understand it, Jesus had little contact with officialdom in his lifetime and didn’t benefit from their interference when it came. State control/nannying has gone far too far and I really don’t think He would approve.
December 21, 2009 2:01 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Brian Lewis wrote:
The answer must be that ‘death’ to God is a mere small incident in life and He can return us to square one and start again if he wants to. That is the only explanation that covers the propensity of human beings to kill each other often enthusiastically and in unpleasant ways.
December 21, 2009 1:16 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Peter Cressall wrote:
Jesus also said, Give all thy goods to the poor, and follow me. If this is the true test of a Christian, I regret to say that there are very few Christians in the world. Just as well, as it would grind to a halt.
December 20, 2009 7:45 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

william garrett wrote:
This letter talks of Jesus, God and suffering. Going back to basics Christians believe that God is omnipotent, the creator of everything and that He loves mankind. So He created pathogens and the human body that is susceptible to a vast array of problems. Most suffering is due to one of these causes. If God loves us why did He cause these problems in the first place instead of telling us to relieve people’s suffering and helping them find the courage to face it? I believe a Christian would have difficulty in answering this whereas for me, as an atheist, the question does not arise.

Sir, Your report “Time for a wholesale clearout of the Church”, Dec 18) makes the common mistake of attributing to Edmund Burke the sentiment: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
But there is no evidence that Burke ever said or wrote any such thing. In 2002 a man called Martin Porter demonstrated that this bogus quotation exists in more than 70 variants, none of which can be traced back to Burke. So this “quotation” is, in fact, just an anonymous proverb.
The closest expression of a similar idea that has been found in Burke’s writings is: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” This sonorous sentence comes from a book entitled Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent, published in 1770.
Antony Edmonds
Waterlooville, Hants

James Smith wrote:
Perhaps the 1770 quotation is the source of Benjamin Franklin’s “hang together or hang separately” There is nothing new under the sun.
December 20, 2009 10:14 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Peter Cressall wrote:
Does it really matter if Burke said it or not? It is the thought that counts, of whatever origin. In any case, he wrote many other interesting things for which he will always be remembered.

Sir, There remains some confusion about liability (for fraudulent misuse) for debit card transactions. With a cheque, a forged signature is a matter of fact, whereas misuse of a debit card, especially at arm’s length of internet or telephone transaction, is harder to pin down. It is hardly surprising that there is widespread public suspicion of the plan to withdraw cheques (letters, Dec 18 and 19).
The Payments Councils says it has to rise to the challenge of finding easy-to-use efficient alternatives for cheque payments. This is a laudable aim, and there is no question that cheques are anachronistic, but they continue to provide a flexible means of transferring funds, initiated and controlled by the sender, not the recipient. The council must come up with an alternative to cheques that retains this vital characteristic, at acceptable cost, with legally defined protection for account holders and parties to a transaction, otherwise a substantial number of people will face a disenfranchised financial future.
David R. Smith
Market Harborough, Leics

Sir, Matthew Parris (“What have politicians done for them? Zilch”, Opinion, Dec 19) must have been too young at the time of his visit to Nyasaland in the 1950s to have noticed the changes that were taking place. The changes in Nyasaland’s development started at this time, especially in the north — roads, forest plantations (Viphya and Nyika) and townships.
All district officers were expected to spend at least two weeks “on ulendo” — walking in the bush. Contact with villagers was friendly and frequent. I cannot remember any of my colleagues using the expression “I say, I say” to a villager. In most cases the use of the local language would have been used — Chinyanja, Chitumbuka, Chiyao etc.
One has to admire Matthew Parris for his enthusiastic writings and his knowledge of the stereotypical Englishman, and I hope he will be successful in the task of encouraging more funds for the projects now taking place in Malawi.
Derek Mclinden
Department of Forestry (Nyasaland) 1949-1959
Harlow, Essex

Sir, Chris Dillow (Opinion, Dec 18) paints a gloomy picture of the true state of the UK employment market, not least in the same week that youth unemployment continued its inexorable rise. During past downturns many young people would learn a musical instrument and form a band as a way of rising from poverty or the drugery of the docks or coalmines.
It is no coincidence that cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and South Wales have produced some great pop acts since the 1960s. Today’s pop charts are dominated by here-today-gone-tomorrow X Factor contestants, ephemeral boy bands, talentless hip-hop and tuneless rap.
If anything good can come out of today’s economic gloom, perhaps it could act as a spur for the younger generation to aspire to chart success. Just think of the long-term boost to the coffers of the UK music industry.
Paul Farrow
Waddington, Lincs

Sir, Attending my daughter’s carol service last night, I discovered that the old favourite Hark! The Herald Angels Sing has been tampered with by the PC zealots. Some lines in verse three have been altered to be “gender inclusive” as has one of my favourites in verse two, “Pleased as man with man to dwell” which now reads (more prosaically) “Pleased with us in flesh to dwell”.
Nic Robinson
Littleover, Derby

Tina Rhea wrote:
“Angels we have heard on high, Passing round the pumpkin pie….”
December 21, 2009 4:17 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

guy cudmore wrote:
There are many bowdlerisations of favourite hymns and carols in hymn-books. Usually it is not because of political correctness, but because the new words become copyright and therefore earning royalties.
December 21, 2009 1:13 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Peter Cressall wrote:
I remember that in December 1936, when the news of King Edward’s affair(e) with Mrs. Simpson broke, we young children started to sing, “Hark the herald angels sing, Mrs Simpson’s pinched our King”.
December 20, 2009 7:58 P

Telegraph:

SIR – As a scientist and geologist, I detest the never-ending list of bogus scare stories about climate change, the latest being the acidification of the oceans.
Man is responsible for carbon dioxide emissions of around 26 gigatonnes per year. The oceans have a total mass of 1.3 billion gigatonnes. So if all the carbon dioxide from man was absorbed by the oceans as very weak carbonic acid (it is only partially absorbed), there would be a ratio of one part carbon dioxide to 50 million parts ocean per year, or one part per million per half century.

The number is far too small to have any possible impact.
Peter Miller
Ascot, Berkshire
SIR – Global temperatures range from about -70C at the poles to 50C in the tropics. With this much variation, not to mention seasonal changes and day-to-day noise, how can anyone justify the use of the “global average temperature” as a meaningful number?
A result of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations is that there will be more energy trapped in our atmosphere. However, no one can say exactly how this energy will be distributed. For example, if that energy were used to maintain higher extremes – some places getting hotter, others getting colder – this would have disastrous consequences, but “global average temperature” might not change.
People should stop talking of a “two degree rise in global temperature”: our planetary system is too complicated to be adequately described by one number.
Spike Jackson
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
SIR – If Dr Paul Williams (Letters, December 13) looked at leaked emails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia, he would know why a sceptical position on climate change is published on the internet rather than in peer-review journals.
The climate change cabal has been claiming that a sceptical position is wrong not on evidence but by appealing to peer-review, the classic logical fallacy of appeal to authority. Some of them, meanwhile, have been cynically working to ensure that peer-review journals will not accept work that runs counter to their own dubious claims, and deciding that any journal that does publish such work is no longer a serious journal.
This makes it a logical impossibility to publish anything they do not approve of in a peer-review journal that they consider serious and respectable.
All the while the members of that cosy cabal were reviewing each other’s papers and unwittingly allowing their dubious science and deeply flawed data processing to be published.
Richard Dale
Wokingham, Berkshire
SIR – Dr Paul Williams reminds us of the foundation of scientific understanding on the bedrock of peer review.
However in the light of “Climategate”, it is very clear why an alternative means of communication was needed, given the cosiness of peer review among the true believers who saw any contradiction to their views as heresy and therefore unworthy of publication.
Dr Eric Huxter
Ashtead, Surrey
SIR – Dr Paul Williams is surely looking in the mirror when he describes sceptics as “well-educated people [who] abandon their powers of independent thought”.
He dismisses Christopher Booker for relying on blogs, but does he not realise that some of the very best scientists are writing and debating on blogs?
Dr Robin Brooke-Smith
Shrewsbury
SIR – I remember that the winter of 1962/63 was extremely cold. A snowman our children built in the garden did not finally melt away until March.
We were assured by scientists that this was the beginning of a new Ice Age. The same warning was repeated in the 1970s, following a particularly cold snap. This threat was followed, some time later, by warnings of a dangerous hole in the ozone layer.
We now have global warming upon us. This time, however, the politicians are cashing in on the scare. I wait with interest to see what the next prediction of doom will be.
Barbara Dowling
London SW19
A stealth tax on Christmas presents
SIR – Every year for the past 20 years my sister-in-law has sent my family presents from Australia. They are only little items such as books, scarves and T-shirts, and on the package is a declaration that the items are presents and that the amount in value is less than £100. They are purchased in various shops in Adelaide where VAT is paid.
This year we received a letter from Royal Mail saying that it was holding a parcel for us and that they required the payment of £64.81, including import duty of £23.67 and VAT of £33.14. No explanation of how these figures are calculated was included in the letter.
Why has this suddenly happened and why should double tax be paid on Christmas presents?
Jeremy Greenwood
London SW18
Poverty among peers
SIR – I am sorry that the Lords feel insulted by their £200-a-day attendance allowance. I am sure many grieve for them.
Will the Government please insult all the pensioners in the country with a £200-a-day allowance for attending the local day centre?
We would forgo the expenses offered and even give up the insult of the “generous” state pension in return for such an insult as offered to the Lords.
R. E. Hawthorn
Thatcham, Berkshire
Bullying smokers
SIR – Not content with banning smoking in every pub in the country, a policy that is partly responsible for the closure of 52 pubs each week, the Government intends to ban the display of tobacco in shops, a move that could threaten the future of many local stores. And, I learned last week, the Government wants to prohibit smoking around children, whether in cars or in the home.
I would not encourage adults to smoke near young children in a small enclosed space, but banning the practice would represent a disturbing intrusion into people’s lives.
This Government is determined to create not just a nanny state but a bully state in which coercion is preferred to education, and prohibition is the first option rather than a last resort. Decisions that should be left to the individual are increasingly being taken by politicians and enforced by a small army of control officers who threaten us with fines and other penalties if we don’t accede.
When is a leading opposition politician going to stand up and say that enough is enough? David Cameron talks about tackling Big Government, but on issues such as this he and his spokesmen remain largely silent.
Millions of votes could be at stake because, without clear leadership, many people will simply abstain from voting in the belief that, when it comes to the bully state, the Conservative Party is no better than Labour.
Simon Clark
Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (Forest)
Cambridge
SIR – Although I have no wish for children to start smoking, were a ban on smoking in front of children to come into force, it would cause many problems.
I only normally smoke when I am having a pint at my local, which I now have to do in the pub garden. Come summertime, when parents bring their children out and sit in the pub garden, will I be banned from smoking as well as them? If not, it will be torture for the parents who do smoke but can’t, and have to watch me.
I have already been moaned at by non-smokers eating meals in pub gardens, but they have a choice about where to eat: I don’t have a choice where to smoke.
Paul Morley
Romford, Essex
The cost of the UK
SIR – The magnitude of Labour’s shocking financial black hole can be perhaps be glimpsed in the context of the tax on bankers’ shocking runaway bonuses. This year Britain is borrowing £178 billion to say afloat, which equates to £479 million a day or £19.9 million an hour. At that rate the £550 million of revenue raised from the tax on bankers’ bonuses represents 27 hours of UK expenditure this year.
With such levels of debt amassing for Britain, and Scotland being liable for a per capita share, the question arises: can Scottish taxpayers meet the expense of staying in the UK? With this pattern set to continue for at least six years, can Scotland afford not to be independent?
Angus MacNeil MP (SNP)
London SW1
Forbidden fruit
SIR – The shops are full of oranges, satsumas, mandarins and clementines but where are the tangerines – particularly those wrapped in silver paper – which are enchanting and magical when found in the toe of a stocking on Christmas morning? They seem to have totally vanished.
Betty Elmer
Grantham, Lincolnshire
Pensioners shouldn’t be penalised by Brown
SIR – The Government is very foolish to play fast and loose with the grey vote (“Great pension con”, report, December 13), for pensioners are expanding rapidly in numbers, as modern medical techniques extend our lives.
We now represent a significant proportion of the electorate. Having worked hard most or all of our lives and paid our share of taxes, we expect and deserve to live out our retirements, long or short, without being penalised and without having to scrimp and save to support a Government that has proved itself spendthrift and incompetent.
John Gouriet
Dilton Marsh, Wiltshire
Excluded Britain
SIR – If Thomas Hind’s views (Letters, December 13) reflect National Farmers Union thinking it is not surprising that British agriculture is in such a parlous state.
Britain is a major contributor to the EU budget and Tony Blair sacrificed several billions of our annual rebate in return for a review of the CAP – on which the French, the main beneficiaries of farm payments, have reneged. Whatever the British Government’s attitude, the French had no right to exclude our country from a meeting to discuss the CAP’s future.
Mr Hind claims that the CAP accounts for “a mere 1.09 per cent of total EU expenditure” – yet I found on the internet that, in 2006, its share of the actual EU budget was 45.4 per cent.
Tony Stone
Oxted, Surrey
MPs have a break
SIR – As the festive season draws nigh, may I wish our hard-working MPs a restful three-week Christmas break.
Having worked so hard throughout the year, and having had only 11 days off over February half-term, 18 days at Easter, 11 at Whitsun and just under three months during the summer, they have surely earned it.
Robert Readman
Bournemouth, Dorset
Early Easter
SIR – People often comment that they have seen the first snowdrop or daffodil of Spring or even heard the first cuckoo.
I have, this week, seen Easter eggs for sale in my local convenience store.
Evelyn Wyatt
Virginia Water, Surrey

SIR – The only good news to come out of Copenhagen is that, in the words of Greenpeace: “There are no targets for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty.”
Hooray! Along with tens of thousands of global-warming sceptics, the world can now breathe a sigh of relief and return to the sanity of real science, which counsels that carbon dioxide is not a poison, let alone likely to cause a heat-driven Armageddon.

We can now burn non-sulphurous coal again to ameliorate the effects of the colder climate that has already been with us for the past decade and is likely to stay for the next 30 years.
Dr David Bellamy
Bedburn, Co Durham
SIR – Getting 192 nations to agree in Copenhagen was never on the cards. A commitment among the eight or so major polluters to reduce carbon emissions was a far more realistic goal, and could have been achieved by a simple video conference without all the carbon-emitting excesses of Copenhagen.
Duncan Rayner
Sunningdale, Berkshire
SIR – Mr Brown (report, December 12) has pledged £1.5 billion over the next three years to help poor countries tackle climate change. This will involve Britain taking on further debt. I just hope that our children and grandchildren, when they pay it back, will appreciate our generosity.
Sir Rodney Sweetnam
Bushey, Hertfordshire
SIR – Do we know how Mr Brown’s donation will actually be spent?
Perhaps a higher priority should be flood defences in Britain, or combat equipment for our troops in Afghanistan, where the benefits are more obvious.
Jeff Ody
Devizes, Wiltshire
SIR – The clearest indication of the lack of a politically acceptable result was Gordon Brown’s avoidance of television interviews.
Had he saved the world again we would have been subjected his grimacing visage across every channel.
Mike Soars
Congresbury, Somerset
SIR – Gordon Brown has expressed disappointment that Copenhagen did not produce a legally binding agreement.
His signature to such a document could not prevent the next government from cancelling it because, as he should know, governments cannot bind their successors.
Edward Huxley
Thorpe, Surrey
SIR – A “Copenhagen” – the collective noun for a mass gathering of politicians, generating nothing but hot air, despair and a carbon footprint.
Frank Sloan
Rochester, Kent
The death of the cheque
SIR – I am treasurer of a registered charity (Letters, December 18), but have no trouble in making most of its payments electronically.
Our charity’s bank has a system that allows me initiate a payment online. It then sends an email to my co-signatories alerting them to the need to access the bank’s website to authorise the payment. This saves our charity a considerable amount on postage and me a lot of work writing out cheques, getting them countersigned and then posted.
I have recently been the victim of cheque fraud, whereby someone added their name, in handwriting resembling mine, to the third line of a personal cheque (below the amount line). This cheque was accepted by a major bank.
My bank gave an immediate refund when the matter came to light, but I suspect that due to the relatively small amount involved, it will not take any action. My experience suggests cheques are no safer than online transactions.
John Griffiths
Hythe, Kent
SIR – I will reluctantly surrender my chequebook, but only with the proviso that Elgar is reinstated on to the English £20 note and that the dour, boring, humourless Adam Smith is relegated back to Scotland.
M. Stafford
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – I can assure readers that we should not worry about cheques disappearing.
We were assured that computerisation would result in the paperless office. I rest my case.
Tom Templeman
Woking, Surrey
Royal rail trips
SIR – There is precedent for royalty using scheduled rail services (report, December 18) dating back at least 90 years, but which, by its nature, generally escapes attention.
We have, in our family records, the original of a letter from Buckingham Palace, dated May 22 1914, addressed to the Superintendent of the Line of the Great Western Railway, Charles Aldington. It requests that arrangements be made for “the Queen to travel to Oxford quite privately accompanied by Princess Mary and a footman”, on the following day, to leave London by the 10.20am train and return the same evening, reaching Paddington at 7.20pm. The letter also makes reference to a journey in the previous year by the King and Queen.
Our present sovereign is continuing an established procedure.
Ian W. Hall
Verwood, Dorset
A deserved put-down line
SIR – Vera Baird’s outburst at King’s Cross (report, December 19) reminded me of an incident at Charles de Gaulle airport.
Several flights to London had been cancelled due to weather. The check-in queue was slow-moving as staff struggled to get passengers home. Suddenly, a man in a pinstriped suit jumped the queue and demand to be put on the flight. The check-in lady politely asked him to join the queue, but he shouted: “Do you know who I am?”
The lady, as cool as a cucumber, stood up and asked the waiting queue: “Does anyone know who this gentleman is, he seems to have lost his memory?”
The waiting passengers erupted in loud applause and the man disappeared into the airport crowd.
Vince Terris
Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear
The logic of bureaucrats
SIR – I have a sneaking sympathy for the Health and Safety Executive (report, December 19) on being made a scapegoat for the legion of stupidities perpetrated by the coal-face jobsworths in local authorities and businesses.
The real blame for the reputation of those working on health and safety lies with the legal profession. They have made everyone conscious of the fortunes that can be made over the most trivial of mishaps. It is they who have formulated the doctrine that there must always be someone to blame for every accident and they who have pumped up the compensation to Lotto proportions, even for the smallest of injuries, and who have consigned the principle of contributory negligence to the dustbin.
Can you blame bureaucrats for protecting their own interests by saying no to anything that may conceivably lead to some legal eagle with an eye on getting their fingers on a higher proportion of the money than the victim, harassing them to an “out of court” settlement?
Ron Giddens
Caterham, Surrey
A picture of social unrest
SIR – I hope this explains the meaning of “The Demurrer” (Letters, December 18). To demur in French means to take from the wall.
The clue is seen in the library in the background of the painting. The year 1873 was a time of radical change. The squire had fallen on hard times. He had property and possessions, but no regular means of income to feed his family. The gamekeeper, though poor, had ready access to food, but lacked education and was illiterate.
Therefore the picture brilliantly illustrates the social upheaval of the times, whereby the lowly gamekeeper makes an offer to feed the squire in exchange for the library which will educate him. Or, in other words, “a turnip for the books”.
Andy Trask
Haslemere, Surrey
Filling the holidays
SIR – After precisely one hour and 18 minutes of his Christmas holidays, my six-year-old son informed me that he was “bored”.
Is this a record?
Guy Walters
Salisbury, Wiltshire

Irish Times:

Resignations and the bishops
Madam, – I agree 100 per cent with everything in Mary Rafterys article ‘Still far from accepting personal responsibility’ (December 18th).
The Irish Bishops Conference admitted they were ashamed of what had gone on in the Archdiocese. They said: “The avoidance of scandal, the preservation of the reputations of individuals and of the church, took precedence over the safety and welfare of children. This should never have happened and must never be allowed to happen again.”
They asked for our forgiveness. Yet of the five bishops who were in positions of power in the Archdiocese during the period of the Murphy report all seem to feel they can be excluded from that plea as they feel they have no need of forgiveness.
The damage it causes to the Catholic Church to see these men hanging on with a vice like grip to power, prestige and title is immeasurable. Is there any real repentance in the Church or are the words from the Bishops conference just that “words”.
As a survivor I found the resignation statement of Bishop Murray hard to swallow. He was resigning to save “survivors” from “difficulties”. Not taking any responsibility at all for his mishandling of an abusing priest , rather he was doing us “the survivors” a favour by stepping down!
Similarly Bishop Moriarity has indicated he might step down if it would serve the people, the church and victims! Not because he feels any responsibility whatsoever.
NO, NO, NO – Bishops Field, Drennan, Walsh and Moriarity you cannot hide the fact that you met month after month in the Archdiocese seeing the policy that was in place and none of you stood up and cried STOP!
You do not seem to realise you must go, not because of how you might have handled individual cases – but because you were part of the regime that facilitated abusing priests to carry on abusing and did nothing to stop it or expose it.
When I was a child I learned of the sin of omission. Have none of these men ever heard of it?
They variously say – we were not criticised in the report (it was only a sample), or we do not feel we did anything wrong etc. . . Examine your consciences and realise standing by and doing nothing was a crime. It left children to be hurt and suffer who should never have been touched.
All are guilty of knowing what the system was and all must take responsibility for being part of that system and not having the courage then to say stop – have the courage now to take the responsibility you should have then and please, please go.
MARIE COLLINS
Firhouse, Co Dublin
Reaction to Budget 2010
Madam, – I would urge the Catholic hierarchy to settle their differences and hence regain their prophetic voice.
Recently we had a Budget at the other end of the moral spectrum to the Christian.
Politicians have tried to assuage their consciences by saying that everyone must bear the pain.
What the politicians forget is that they received 25 increases in 10 years of a previous administration. What they are returning now, in part, is money they should never have taken in the first place.
The rich, which includes our politicians, are giving from their surplus. The poor, the carers, the blind and those with disability are being forced to give from their need. Hence, what they are giving is disproportionate to income.
If the Christian voice is silent or muted, budgets such as the last will continue to “cry to heaven for vengeance”. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH O’CALLAGHAN,
Director,
Irish School of Evangelisation,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
New national children’s hospital site
Madam,   –   As someone who has been in practice for 56 years, I ask, has there been adequate consideration given regarding the siting of the proposed new national children’s hospital? And who made the current decision?  I ask now, before the proposed hospital plans are sent out for tender.
The Mater Hospital is an excellent hospital but, surely, the proposed site is on a space which should be left for future expansion of this public hospital?
I have visions of distraught parents coming to Dublin to visit a very sick child and, on top of that, trying to negotiate chaotic traffic into the city.  Remember, the new hospital will have to cater for sick children from every quarter of the land.
In better times, a successful businessman offered a free site and organised a syndicate to build the hospital.   The offer was turned down.
Common sense tells us that the hospital should be sited on the outskirts of the city, convenient to all major approach roads.  The essential services should include diagnostic facilities, as well as the usual paediatric, medical, surgical and isolation units.
Apart from physiotherapy and rehabilitation, there should be adequate grounds for recreational facilities for the recovering children.   Ideally, a hostel should be built on the grounds to accommodate anxious parents who might wish to be near their most likely frightened child. – Yours, etc,
Dr PATRICK J HENRY,
MICGP, FFOM, FRCGP Patron,
Co Sligo General Practitioners Society,
Rosses Point Road, Sligo.
Public service pay and pensions
Madam, – Seán Fallon (December 18th) raises an interesting question about the Government’s intentions with regard to the link between public sector pensions and actual pay. Questions also need to be asked about the Government’s intentions toward the pension reserve. Is the propaganda campaign against public sector pay and pensions a prelude to securing unrepayable loans against this fund? It would be a really imaginative way of stealing these pensions, but the Government that gave us the bank guarantee shows great imagination when it comes to making appalling decisions.
TIM O’HALLORAN,
Ferndale Road,
Dublin 11.
A healthy new year
Madam, – I note Alex Staveley’s suggestion (December 17th) that in these challenging financial times, friends and family could purchase GP vouchers as a useful seasonal gift. May I suggest that the State could also provide such useful vouchers for all families. It’s called universal health care. – Yours, etc,
MAIRE O’REILLY,
Renard Road,
Cahersiveen,
Co Kerry.
Reducing the pay of judges
Madam, – I would concur with John Stafford (December 18th), in that the spirit of the law would dictate that the constitutional prohibition on reducing the pay of judges would not apply if proposed salary cuts were applied across the board to all public servants.
However, a constitutional referendum would be needed in order to allow the invoking of defined pay cuts as the letter of the law would, in contrast, clearly be broken in this case. A different scenario should pertain to the application of the public service pension levy introduced last year, however.
The letter of the law would not be broken if the levy was applied also to the judiciary, given that the term “remuneration” in the Constitution should be regarded as meaning “remuneration before deductions”, unless otherwise qualified. This is already illustrated in practice by the fact that judges suffer financially whenever income tax is increased. – Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNEDY,
Knocknashee,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.
Stamp of disapproval
Madam, – Jenny Morton (December 17th) encountered some difficulty in obtaining non-religious stamps for her non-religious Christmas cards.
In contrast, I encountered difficulty in obtaining religious Christmas cards for my religious stamps. Persistence, however, paid off, as it would have done for Ms Morton: the excellent “birds” stamps, designed by the talented Susan Sex.
But since Christmas is a religious festival, commemorating the birth of the baby Jesus, why does Ms Morton bother? Would she not be better sending cards to mark the pagan festival of the Winter solstice? – Yours, etc,
WJ MURPHY,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Is Santa safe?
Madam, – Natallia Hunt (December 17th) raises a valid point. There should be a suitable Claus in the new home defence legislation. – Yours, etc,
ADAM TRODD,
Enniskerry Road,
Stepaside,
Dublin 18.
Home thoughts from abroad
Madam, – I have been a subscriber to The Irish Timesnow for several months via my Kindle e-reader, and cannot sufficiently express to you my admiration for your superb coverage and excellent writing, including your editorials.
I am a time-distant son of Ireland, my ancestors having emigrated in the 1850s. My wife and I were fortunate enough to honeymoon in Ireland some years ago; there were many things which reminded us of our homeland here in Iowa: the same love of land, the sincere real presence of “just folks,” and almost heartbreaking beauty of landscape.
Your coverage of Ireland’s child abuse scandal by some members of the Catholic Church’s religious is a sad echo of the anguish we continue to undergo in the United States. My heart aches for the abused, for those who trusted, and for the majority of good priests and nuns there who have been loyal witnesses to the teachings and ethics of Jesus.
The tone of your civic conversations over the economic crisis, and the various options to curtail expenditures, have been of a higher, and more inclusive, order than here in the US. In your pages I find that the concept of the “general welfare” and the “good of the many” to be more instinctive and more good-spirited than in the US.
My continued best wishes for a successful newspaper, and for the people of Ireland in general. My homeland continues to inspire me! – Yours, etc,
GREG CUSACK,
381st Avenue,
Bellevue, Iowa, US.
TDs’ Christmas break
Madam, – I note with interest the members of Dáil Éireann have voted to take an extra week’s holidays over the Christmas period.
No doubt this will be unpaid leave? – Yours, etc,
DAVID MOYNAN
(Revd Canon),
Kilternan, Dublin 18.
Abbey moving to the GPO
Madam, – Minister for Arts, Martin Cullen claims he “mutually” came up with and “kicked around” another “fascinating idea” to follow his e-voting brainwave, this time to shovel the Abbey Theatre into the GPO.
The General Post Office is not just another old building to be recycled at the whim of a government minister.
It is owned collectively by all citizens of the Irish Republic – both materially and spiritually. The right of Irish women and Irish men to be free and equal citizens of the Irish Republic was hard won as a result of the very real dramatic events that unfolded within the GPO and the other garrisons at Easter 1916. We citizens hold the GPO not just as a symbol of that great national drama but as the repository of the collective consciousness surrounding the Rising and its eventual outcome, as do the diaspora and the multitude of foreign visitors for whom it is a place of genuine fascination.
Mr Cullen wants us to “Think of the wider context of O’Connell Street and try to rejuvenate it”.
The truth is that Easter 1916, the GPO, the Proclamation and our collective memory are sources of embarrassment to Mr Cullen and his Cabinet colleagues who would prefer no heroes to live up to and no vision for the future to aspire to. Better to sweep away all references to idealism and real (pre-Lenihan) patriotism so that this Government’s anti-republican neo-liberal agenda can proceed.
At Easter 2016 I intend to assemble with a mass of citizens outside a still functioning General Post Office to commemorate and celebrate the heroes and heroines of the Easter Rising, most of them ordinary workers including my grandfather John Stokes of the Boland’s Mills garrison. I have no intention of standing outside Abbey@theGPO on that day or any other, however thrilling that notion might be for the bourgeois elite.
Mr Cullen can put the “fascinating idea” into long-term storage – alongside his e-voting machines, at his own expense. – Yours, etc,
TOM STOKES,
Season Park,
Newtownmountkennedy,
Co Wicklow.
Madam, – The Abbey is moving to the GPO after all, with debate on the matter conspicuous by its absence. It would appear from Deirdre Falvey’s report (Artscape, December 12th) that the stakeholders in the Abbey – the performing arts and wider arts communities – have had no part in this decision.
If Mr Cullen takes the time to ask, he may learn what a grim prospect it is to those working in the performing arts to have to play and dance and sing where others fought – particularly when the fight is one about which the nation to this day feels so paralysingly ambivalent.
Furthermore, he may learn how many agree with eminent theatre director, Peter Brook, when he says that theatres should be designed primarily by the artists who work in them.
Do people agree on the urgency for a debate? Might the National Campaign for the Arts, for instance, seek to debate with the Minister the case for relocating the Abbey to the GPO? Can we look to director of the Abbey, Fiach Mac Conghail, to host a debate and represent to Government the views and, where possible, a consensus coming from artists, theatre workers and audiences? Or do we let pass without demur yet another decision for which future generations will not thank us? – Yours, etc,
THOMAS CONWAY,
Maunsell’s Road,
Shantalla, Galway.

Well I must be off

best wishes John

Phone

December 20, 2009 by johnblakey

Phone 20 December 2009

Struggling with my new mobile phone, lt’s an LG touch phone, obviously designed for people more intelligent than me, which is not particularity difficult. I will master the thing in the end, just before the next one comes out. I put in its Micro SD card tho think that such a tiny sliver of plastic and metal the size of my thumbnail can hold 16 gb of data, that’s more than the Encyclopedia Britannica. I eventually get it to communicate with my computer it plays the most infuriating music while transferring files, the revenge of Generation X, I suppose for having to listen to the odd bit of classical music. It will accept phone numbers much easier to type them in than on the phone’s touch screen keyboard, but not transfer mp3 files, maddening, but I will sort it in the end.
We are promised more snow, snow in the north, severe weather warnings. Motorists bitterly complain about being stuck. As do the passengers stuck in the channel tunnel on the train. Its cold in Northern France and warm in the tunnel so bits of metal fall off the trains? Someone did not do the design work properly. I remember years ago the Cambridge quire were stuck in the tunnel and practiced their singing, to the delight or otherwise of the rest of the passengers.
Sandy, Joan’s niece, rings and comes round, looking tired visiting her mum in hospital, and minding Joan, we provide hot coffee and chocolate biscuits and sympathy, Joan seems to be doing well and Sandy seems quite pleased. She is here until January and promises to get us some rock salt for the drive, I don’t want the postman or the paper girl slipping. It vanishes from Homebase the moment the first flake falls.
I put a pheasant on to roast, rather late its cooked but not falling off the bone the way I like it, carrots sweet potatos and rice. We watch Brandy for the Parson http://www.britmovie.co.uk/films/Brandy-for-the-Parson
A delightful film though the sound could be a little bit better. The old actors are perfect, blending together, the camerawork is particularly beautiful, and the pack horses really ought to have go an Oscar for acting ability. Even the minor characters shine clear and true, a evocation of life in England as it never was but should have been.

Postcards

St Brelades Bay, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

St Brelades Bay, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

Mont Orgueli Castle, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

Mont Orgueli Castle, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

The harbour and Elizabeth Castle, St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

The harbour and Elizabeth Castle, St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

St Brelades, Jersey, Channel Islands, UK

St Brelades, Jersey, Channel Islands, UK

Bouley Bay, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

Bouley Bay, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

A multitude of cats Postcrossing card from the USA

US 569211

Lovely Finnish Christmas card from Finland

FI 706791

Obituary: Jennifer Jones: actress who starred in The Song of Bernadette

(John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images)
Jones: her naive style proved effective in early roles but film critics observed that she lacked the charisma to be a great star

Image :1 of 2
The Hollywood producer David O. Selznick was a megalomaniac who was determined to have total control over his films and the stars who appeared in them. He pushed this to the limit with a shy and insecure young actress whom he shaped, made into a star, married and dominated.
Jennifer Jones not only owed her screen name to Selznick but was his creation in a wider sense, happy to fall under his spell and be moulded by him. Without him she would not have started with an Oscar-winning performance in The Song of Bernadette nor gone on to appear in some of the most popular films of the 1940s.
But, as the years went on, her reliance on Selznick became double-edged. She was rarely able to break rank and take roles he had not chosen for her, and as his judgment and behaviour became increasingly erratic her career, and sanity, suffered accordingly.
With her tumbling dark hair and wide eyes under strong eyebrows, Jones was striking rather than beautiful. As an actress she turned in solid performances and could be effective in flamboyant roles, such as the mixed-race woman in Duel in the Sun or the child of nature in Gone to Earth. However, she lacked the magnetism that makes the difference between a middling star and a great one.
She was born Phylis Isley in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1919. Her parents ran a travelling stock company and she appeared with them as a child, though they initially dissuaded her from pursuing an acting career. She would not be put off and in 1938 joined the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, where her contemporaries included Constance Collier, Uta Hagen and Lee Strasberg.
Another fellow student was Robert Walker, whom she married in 1939 when she was 19. The couple returned to Tulsa, where they did radio work, and moved to Hollywood where Isley, now Phyllis, had small parts in a B western, New Frontier, with John Wayne, and a serial, Dick Tracy’s G-Men.
Letters:

Guardian:

China still silences dissident voices
Comments (1)
Buzz up!
Digg it
The Observer, Sunday 20 December 2009
Article history
In her article about Liu Xiaobo (“Outrage as Chinese dissident faces up to 15 years in prison”, World),Tania Branigan says it not clear how many of Charter 08’s thousands of signatories live on the mainland. According to research by Chinese Human Rights Defenders (chrdnet.org), about 80% of them do, with most of the rest coming from Hong Kong.
Because China is not a society where people can express themselves openly, just as it can be asserted that: “There is no sign that [Charter 08] had mass appeal”, there is, likewise, little sign that it didn’t.
In my travels in China, I have been struck by just how many people are aware of, and encouraged by, Charter 08, and that’s in spite of government efforts to “wipe” it from the internet. What alarmed the authorities about Charter 08 was not only that people from various sectors of society signed it but that people from virtually every province contributed to its drafting. You won’t find many “in the know” willing to discuss that in any detail for fear of tipping off the authorities.
Brian Kern
Hong Kong
What price the arts in this country?
Robert McCrum’s fine analysis of the collapse of high culture (“Shorn of dissent, high culture has become little different from The X Factor”, Viewpoint) neglects to point the finger beyond the complicit artists and writers.
Most of us find great difficulty in determining how narrow will become the ground on which the patronage of commissioning editors, artistic directors and executive producers is built. There is no original drama on television, merely genre and the dramatisation of fiction and biography.
As with film, British publishing has become a lowly outpost of an international enterprise that believes itself to be dependent upon supposed and aspirant celebrity. And, as I have found, the regional and subsidised theatres so feted in the press do not generally look at unsolicited plays in the decade that they are submitted.
Until those who commit funds to new works are allowed to look beyond the fast buck, only complicit artists need apply.
W Stephen Gilbert
Corsham, Wilts
Child refugees deserve compassion
Your article, “Anglican ‘Santa’ barred from giving gifts to children at detainee centre” (News), shows the sorry state of the UK’s detention policies. As a Jewish charity concerned with race and asylum, we would like to add our voice to the growing chorus of protest about the shocking detention of more than 1,000 children a year.
Seventy years after the Kindertransport, when nearly 10,000 Jewish children fled from Hitler and found refuge in Britain, where has our humanity gone? In other EU countries, children come under a community-based arrangement.
Dr Edie Friedman executive director
the Jewish Council for Racial Equality London NW11
■ Henry Porter wonders “what is in the minds of people like Phil Woolas, the Home Office minister in charge of the UK Border Agency and the policy of child detention” (News). He knows, of course: the electorate, informed by the bigotry of tabloid newspapers. But maybe we are not as brainwashed as Woolas expects and humane leadership may do him no harm.
John Airs
Liverpool

The truth worth of a Tobin tax
Your editorial “Why the Tobin tax could be Brown’s legacy” makes a good case for a levy on global financial transactions. It is reasonable to assume a Tobin tax would be levied on those with a low propensity to spend and the redistribution of the revenues would be towards those with a higher propensity to spend. So aggregate demand should increase. There are, however, major political obstacles, in addition to what you rightly suggest: the international co-ordination that would be required and the political power of the financial sector. A Tobin tax by itself cannot perform miracles. It would be more appropriate to use the tax as one of several policy instruments that could be co-ordinated to discourage speculation. The potential of the Tobin tax to provide revenues is enormous.
Philip Arestis, director of research, Cambridge Centre for Economic and Public Policy, University of Cambridge
Malcolm Sawyer, professor of economics,
Leeds University Business School
The blight of borrowing
Andrew Rawnsley tells us: “The insurance premium for lending to Britain is now higher than that charged for lending to Slovakia” (Comment). So why has National Savings and Investments (NS&I) closed the recent issue of guaranteed income and guaranteed growth bonds because they were oversubscribed? Surely it is better to keep borrowing in “the family” than risk borrowing from a stranger whose only care is that their loan is safe?
Martin Cooper
Bromley, Kent
Don’t blame Gordon Brown
Will Hutton castigated Gordon Brown and the government for not foreseeing the credit crunch (“Darling’s plan was more radical than he got credit for. But it is not enough”, Comment). Unfortunately, neither the opposition nor senior people in other countries saw what was coming. Aiming all the blame at Gordon Brown is not fully fair. The proper questions now are what plans are appropriate for the future and how confident can we be that such plans will be adequately ‘bomb-proof’ against possible future shocks? These could include the availability food, energy and raw materials, the pressures of increasing population and requirements to combat climate change.
John Chubb
Cheltenham
There’s one law for…
So Mohammed Ezzouek went to Somalia because “he wanted to live under sharia” and then, when the Ethiopians mounted a bombing campaign, fled to Kenya, where he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism (“I was in a foreign cell but my interrogators were British agents”, News). Other Britons, found carrying drugs abroad, have also expressed surprise and fear at their treatment when apprehended. Suddenly, they develop a longing for the legal systems of their native country. Shouldn’t they be aware by now that there are many countries where torture, lack of legal representation and violent conflict are the norm?
A Farlow
London NW22
Spare us the tortured imagery
Please, Barbara Ellen, don’t devalue the horror of waterboarding by using it is a synonym for boredom (“Why does Hollywood lecture me, not entertain me, now?”, Comment).
Natty Triskel
Bristol
So much for Gospel truths
In “Bible tales are retold for the secular age” (News) frequent use is made of the phrase “the Nativity story”. In the Christian myth, there are two of these, one in the gospel attributed to Matthew, and a different one in the gospel attributed to Luke. About all they have in common is that Joseph and Mary had a baby boy in Bethlehem and Joseph wasn’t the real father.
Both writers wrote their accounts long after the supposed time of the Nativity and lifted their material from much older saviour god stories, such as the one about Mithras. But I don’t suppose any of this is taught in schools in this so-called secular age.
Barry Thorpe
Stockport

My crap holiday
Downcast on the doorstep, not gazing at the stars

We decided to head off for the weekend for my birthday. I had saved a newspaper clipping about a B&B with an observatory in the garden and organised tours of the night sky. When I rang, the landlady couldn’t have been more accommodating – checking the moon calendar and enthusing about the night sky.
I booked a double room and paid on my credit card. When I told her the names of the guests (both women’s names) she said, “Oh! But it is a double room.” Your gay readers will cringe in recognition here… Wake up north Norfolk, this is the 21st century.
“A double will be fine,” I said.
“Oh no! I can put a put-you-up bed in the room. There is plenty of space.”
“No, you don’t have to do that, a double bed is fine, it is what we prefer.”
“But it’s a double bed, just one bed…”
And so the conversation continued.
I rang back a couple of weeks later to confirm the time of our night sky tour. This time she was decidedly cool, but I didn’t take too much notice.
The weekend arrived and we started the day with a long coastal walk, arriving at our B&B about 20 minutes before the night sky tour was due to start. No one answered the door, and after waiting a while we went to a side door.
After several minutes a man came out, closing the door behind him, and said: “Are you the ones from Norwich? You may as well go home, you haven’t come far, we are not doing a night sky tour tonight. There isn’t anything here for you.” It was cold and dark; we were standing on his doorstep with our bags in our hands, exhausted from our long coast walk and childishly excited about seeing the delights of the night sky.
“Oh, do you mean that we can’t stay?”
“Well there’s no point,” he said, avoiding looking at our bags.
“Could we at least come in and see the observatory?” I asked. (Oh God, I thought, am I begging to be let in?)
“No.”
I turned to my partner: “Shall we talk about it and decide what to do?”
“You do that,” he said, and closed the door in our faces, leaving us holding our bags in the dark, on his doorstep.
Happy birthday stargazers!

As Tony Blair’s biographer, Anthony Seldon is the wrong person to defend Mr Blair (“He saw Iraqis suffering, and believed it was his duty to help them”, 13 December). When he was prime minister, Mr Blair had a bully pulpit for his views on Iraq and Saddam Hussein, and his use of unprincipled means to achieve soi-disant principled ends has blown back.
Mr Seldon compares his moral conviction to that of Gladstone, but Gladstone ended up out of step with his own party on this sort of issue, and resigned. The Victorians were pragmatists, not ideologists, and would simply have removed somebody like Saddam and not bothered what people thought.
As to the ex-PM feeling he had a “duty not to pass by on the other side”, he had a much greater duty to his own electors, those from whose hands he received his power, not to commit them to a war which it now seems he could have influenced much more had he actually wanted to.
Adam Walker
Durham
Could Anthony Seldon remind me how many troops the Good Samaritan used? Tony Blair had 45,000 in the initial invasion phase of the Iraq war. Also, how many civilians did the Samaritan kill? Tony’s total was 7,299 in the first six weeks of the war.
Richard Bosworth
Rottingdean, East Sussex
It’s a funny old thing, democracy, when a party can be voted in, and its leader, on the pretext of moral convictions, can cook up a secret deal to go to war on a country that, although internally leaving a lot to be desired, had never attacked the UK. The stated aim of stability seems a bit forlorn now. This reckless adventure has affected everybody in the UK by way of terrorist threats, bombings and interminable security checks, perhaps for the next 30 years.
Barry Clarke
Shepton Mallet, Somerset
As someone with two jobs in order to make a living, I see nothing in Labour’s recent pre-Budget report that takes away from small enterprises adding genuine value to the economy (John Rentoul, “Labour is unelectable again”, 13 December). The proposed one-off tax on bonuses is a specific tax on the financial service sector which nearly brought our economy to its knees, and would quite likely do so again if this country does not diversify its economic base. We must cut our dependence on institutions that, by their nature, are all about greed and quick profits for shareholders.
Paul Redfern
Brighton
Janet Street-Porter rails against bonuses for public sector workers (“Forget class. It’s your perks that define your status”, 13 December). These bonuses – more aptly termed performance-related pay – generally replaced automatic increments based on length of service. Is she suggesting that the public sector does not recognise good performance, or that it docks pay across the board, making public service even less attractive at a time when good performance is vital to assisting economic recovery?
John Dorken
London N10
The issues of poverty and social mobility in the UK need to be high on the agenda of political parties at the forthcoming general election. Sometimes this poverty seems to be a cycle that passes down the generations. Other times, it can be the result of unfortunate circumstances, bad luck or discrimination. Often, it appears to be the result of the wealthy and powerful defending their own interests, which is certainly what the Tories did when they were in government. We need to offer people hope and opportunities to create a more just society.
Robert Heale
Brighton
Janet Street-Porter is right to tackle Today for fielding four male but only two female guest editors after Christmas (“BBC’s strange idea of equality”, 13 December). The programme is tediously overloaded with rent-a-quote men. But if P D James and Shirley Williams are not entirely representative of British womanhood, as she says, who is? The answer is, nobody. Every woman is her own person and cannot represent her sex as a whole. We should not think of women as a breed, with a checklist of characteristics. That would be mixing them up with pedigree cats.
Anna Distin
London E1
Bernard Cribbins – what a man! This key figure in my childhood was brought back to mind by Susie Mesure’s fine interview (“I was in the Tardis before David was born”, 13 December). And I thought I knew my Cribbins, but I never realised he was a paratrooper during his National Service or that he once starred in Coronation Street.
Susan Nott
Weybridge, Surrey

Times:

IT doesn’t matter a tuppenny damn who wins the election because the damage that has been done to this country is so immense I can’t see it being repaired in my lifetime (“Labour gets set for snap election”, News, last week). That damage is not confined to our mind-numbing levels of indebtedness, which I don’t understand how we will succeed in reducing. And we have been led into this by a man who asserted he had abolished boom and bust.
My own retirement income has been eviscerated through a combination of financial services’ uncontrolled recklessness and regulators’ serial ineptitude; I have no means of regaining what has been lost. Obviously the loss of lives and limbs in the wars in which we have been engaged is of a different order of magnitude, and one can only extend sympathy and respect to those who have suffered.
Policy is, apparently, not made on the basis of evidence. Certainly that is how it seems regarding Heathrow expansion, as I endure the assault of planes over my house. For more than a decade the Labour party queued up to lick Tony Blair’s boots; his legacy is its legacy.
Elizabeth Balsom
London SW15
Sliding downwards
I see from your headline a snap election may come as early as March 25, based on a YouGov poll putting Labour “only” nine points behind the Conservatives. They say a week’s a long time in politics, so if Gordon Brown is going to have a snap election he’d better get a move on, as a report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research says although the UK was the world’s fourth largest economy in 2005, by 2015 we’ll be out of the top 10; coming behind France in 2008, Italy in 2009 and soon Brazil and Russia, then India and Canada.
Paul Milner
Sheringham, Norfolk
Commons clear-out
The forthcoming election result will be the most difficult to forecast. We have been so appalled by the morality of sitting MPs that we will vote against sitting members of whatever political colour.
The consequence will be the greatest number of inexperienced MPs ever.
John Norfolk
Tiverton, Devon
All for the chop
The problem is that we have no real choice any more, there not being a sliver of difference between new Labour and blue Labour. Simply cutting everything that moves, as the Tories will do, is not the answer to our problems, except that it would create unrest.
David Gardiner
by email
Brown’s prudence
Although I disagree with a lot of the things that Labour has done, it cannot be blamed for the downfall of the economy. In fact, if anything it can be praised for the recession not being much worse. Whatever the critics say, no one could have predicted the scale of the crisis. The Tories were hardly screaming for more regulation over the years. I’m not a Labour supporter but I think Brown’s handling of the economic crisis should attract praise, not criticism.
Tom Grady
by email
Not true blues
I would vote Conservative if they behaved like Conservatives (Martin Ivens, “Dave’s talked tough, now let’s have hope”, Comment, last week). Why have they agreed to massive increases in welfare spending, international aid and climate change commitments while announcing the intention to make huge defence cuts, especially from the Royal Navy? If there must be cuts then for God’s sake not from core national identity icons such as defence and the NHS.
S Page
Walsall
Single-minded
The question about drink driving on your Message Board (“A drop taken away”, Comment, December 6) goes to the heart of the way we are currently governed.
Increasingly we have one-dimensional government by quangos that are set up to consider a single issue, and whose remit does not allow them to take account of wider consequences. Health and safety is the most glaring example. And with the decline in cabinet government, many departments behave similarly, including transport.
In California, government by referendum has proved just as damaging and divisive. The art of government, and the role of politics, is to reach a suitable compromise between the extremes in the interests of the nation, not to bow to unrepresentative pressure groups as we have often seen.
The implications for drink driving? Live and let live in a world full of risk and uncertainty and maintain the social customs that help define a nation, including the village pub and country living.
Professor Michael Wickens
Askham Bryan, York

Peter Cressall wrote:
A country gets the government it deserves. As long as most people favour the State taxing people so it can make hand-outs to the deserving poor, we shall be bogged down in bureaucracy and disincentives. The wish to create heaven on earth, while theoretically laudable, is the impractical ballast that weighs the country down.
December 20, 2009 2:56 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Brian Lewis wrote:
Life is meant to be fun, and for me has been fun since I reached the age of 20 in 1954. With huge debts, the UK is going to have to fight for a place in the world. This will bring forward a whole new level of talents for government, so sadly lacking over th elast 30 years – possible because we have been too rich!

YOUR report “Officials cover up wind farm noise report” (News, last week) shows how the government is hellbent on covering the country with these monstrous totems. Wind turbines are purported to save us from being fried in the hell of climate change — but the thousands of turbines already despoiling our landscape and torturing residents produce less electricity than a single ageing nuclear power station.
What wind turbines do generate is fat subsidies for energy companies, paid for through inflated electricity bills — up 60% by 2012. And since the UK produces only 2% of the world’s CO2, all that extra cost won’t make a scrap of difference to climate change. We should instead be investing in agricultural research and managing water to control flooding and irrigate crops when there are droughts.
Helen Johnson
Northallerton, North Yorkshire
Green façade
This pursuit of wind power rather than some strategically sited nuclear power stations providing much-needed employment is just so that Labour is seen to be “green”.
We have them sprouting up everywhere in rural Aberdeenshire, with no heed for local residents’ views. I sat in my truck recently, some 450 yards from three, and was amazed by the noise — and I have impaired hearing.
Their installation provides very little benefit to rural economies other than to the landowner on whose ground they have been erected. They also come with connection poles and cables as a further blot on the landscape. A senior planning officer told me recently: “We can’t have people building houses in the country.” Conversely, as regards provision for turbines through the Scottish office, it appears that anything goes.
Derek Edgley
Ellon, Aberdeenshire
Voices drowned out
This government has not been keen to see a review take place of the 1997 wind turbine noise report for obvious reasons, and any new evidence that may delay its plans to achieve x amount of onshore wind turbines by any given date will inevitably be buried away.
This or any future government should seriously consider offering protection to those who are affected by wind farms, new road schemes, airport expansion and so on.
Currently, any householder unduly affected by a wind farm development would have to resort to the courts. How are individuals or small groups expected to take on the powerful energy companies who can afford to tie up the little guy in the court system for years?
Roger Callow
Sleaford, Lincolnshire

YOUR article “Paranoia casts volunteers as perverts” (News Review, last week) states that Richard Graham, the Conservative parliamentary candidate, is “prepared to defy the law” and “willing to go to jail” for driving members of his son’s cricket team to matches. I can reassure him that there is no such law for him to defy and no question of him going to jail. Parents making private arrangements between themselves have never been part of the vetting and barring scheme, which was recommended by the inquiry into the Soham murders.
However, when parents are entrusting third parties, such as schools or Cub Scout groups, to choose the adults who have frequent contact with their children, it is right that they are checked out. As you reported, we are making changes following the review I asked Sir Roger Singleton to undertake. These mean we now have a scheme which is not overly burdensome and strikes the right balance for children and parents.
Ed Balls MP
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families
Overruling the courts
Jenni Russell writes: “Staff are warned not to assume that an acquittal by a court or a professional body implies innocence. They must reach their own conclusions, based on a balance of probabilities.”
So those who gave power to this monster (the Independent Safeguarding Authority) have no confidence in the legal system and think the ISA’s caseworkers (former prison officers, care home workers, call centre employees), with their “life experience”, are better qualified than the courts to decide another citizen’s guilt. What breath-taking and alarming arrogance.
Laurel Miller
Gerrards Cross
Buckinghamshire

Fortune tellers

Adrian McAllister, chief executive of the ISA, says: “We are looking for those who present a future risk of harm” (“Government U-turn over parental checks”, News, last week). We assume they have been issued with crystal Balls.
Arthur Jones
Holmfirth, West Yorkshire

Well I must be off

best wishes John

Fire department

December 19, 2009 by johnblakey

Fire service 19 December 2009

There being a heavy fall of snow, well heavy for us, I don’t really expect them to turn up bu at five to ten the phone rings its the fire department. A fireman and a firewoman they come in clutching two fire alarms. “We have come to fit your new fire alarms” they say. I show them around and he tells her where to fit them. Then he comes to give us a little talk while she is fitting them.
The main danger is smoke, not flames, one lung full and you are down no matter how fit and healthy you are so if you spot a fire, close the door, and call the fire brigade. The alarms that they fit will last for ten years and not need a battery replaced.
We inquire gently whether they would not prefer to be out in the nice fresh air, rescuing motorists stranded in the snow. He give a theatrical shiver recognizes that we are winding him up ever so gently and says that it is much more important for them to prevent fire, that way everyone is saved time and trouble and perhaps injury. Madam ask me for a chair to stand on and refits the wobbly one that I fitted the previous day.
The moral of the story is if you see a fire close the door to prevent it spreading and get out and ring the fire brigade. If its blocking your escape then put a door between it and you and ring them. They depart wishing us a merry Christmas, the whole thing took twenty minutes. Their busy time is after Christmas. They depart gloomily into the falling snow, still it is beautiful and illuminates the trees.
The fire alarms would have cost us £20 each from Homebase and we would have had to fit them ourselves, and I am not good on the top of wobbly ladders, with Mary looking on I suspect that she thinks that if I did fall off then I would land on the cat. I suspect that she is right!

Fry a lamb chop and make a salad and watch Brothers-in-Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_in_Law Absolutely delightful with Richard Attenbourigh and Jill Adams. The first year of a newly minted barrister.
The snow lies heavily on the ground and the cats are not disposed to go out in it, Fluff flees the obviously dangerous fireman and woman. Kitten swaggers in after they are gone “I chased them away I did!

Postcards

La Collette, Havre-des-Pas, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

La Collette, Havre-des-Pas, Jersey, Channel Islands UK

Saint Helier at night, Jersey, Channel Islands, UK

Saint Helier at night, Jersey, Channel Islands, UK

Bouley Bay. Jersey Channel Islands UK

Bouley Bay. Jersey Channel Islands UK

Jersey largest and most southerly of the Channel Islands area 45 square miles UK

Jersey largest and most southerly of the Channel Islands area 45 square miles UK

Grand Greve, Sark Channel Islands, UK

Grand Greve, Sark Channel Islands, UK

Nice but slightly twee postcrossing card from Finland

FI 704711

Strange card from Wacky Stuff, not quite my cup of tea

CA 85961

Obituary: Dame Paddy Ridsdale: Conservative grande dame

Dame Paddy Ridsdale was a political hostess and the leading light among her generation of Conservative wives who delighted in the fact that she was the model for Miss Moneypenny in Ian Fleming’s novels about James Bond, although, with her striking good looks, she was rather different from her lovelorn fictional alter ego.
She did not demur from the belief, widely held in the media, that she played an important part in creating an identity for “The Man Who Never Was” by writing the love letters that were found in the pockets of the corpse which was used by the Allies as a means to deceive the enemy about the location of the Mediterranean landings during the Second World War. This was in fact a fiction worthy of the creator of James Bond himself.
Victoire Evelyn Patricia Bennett was born in 1921, the daughter of Colonel J. and Edith Bennett, and was educated at the Sorbonne.
“Paddy”, as she was known, was 19 when, during the war, she became a civilian assistant at the office of the Director of National Intelligence. At the old Admiralty building in Whitehall that looks on to Horse Guards Parade at the rear she met Fleming whose job as assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence was to mastermind clandestine missions to occupied Europe and to devise means of spying on, confusing and generally provoking the Nazis. They both worked in the celebrated Room 39, one of the more secret parts of the Admiralty building, where Fleming, with his fertile mind (although he had yet to write a novel), cooked up ever more outlandish schemes to deceive the enemy.

One of these, which worked perfectly, unlikely though it seemed, was Operation Mincemeat, or The Man Who Never Was. In 1943, after the their successes in North Africa, the Allies’ plan to land in Sicily as a prelude to the big push into Italy hinged on deceiving the Italian and German forces into believing that the expected landings in southern Europe would involve an invasion of Greece and Sardinia.
Room 39 came up with the idea of disguising a corpse as a Royal Marines officer, “Major Martin”, with a “secret”, different plan of attack in a briefcase attached to the body by a detachable chain then in common use by bank couriers. The body, appearing to be a casualty from a downed aircraft, would be taken by submarine to the southern coast of Spain, off the town of Huelva, where it would be carefully floated ashore where it was hoped that a Nazi agent who was known to be operating in the area would get to know of it. To make the body, whose real identity was that of a Welsh tramp, seem totally convincing, theatre tickets and the love letters were also placed in its pockets. The body was picked up by fishermen in April 1943. The subterfuge worked remarkably well and the Axis powers were caught by surprise on July 9, 1943, when the Allies unleashed their huge amphibious and airborne invasion of Sicily.

Letters:

Guardian:

The poignant, disturbing, brilliant photographs of people affected by climate change (We Live On The Edge) were made even more powerful by the interspersed advertisements that illustrated our obsession with image, desire and greed – characteristics that have no doubt contributed to the situation. Only two of the 11 ads were for things that might really improve our lives – ie, books and further education.
Vivien Eliades Brighton, East Sussex
So, two (I guess wealthy, western) photojournalists visit Peru, Mali, Yakutsk, Thailand, Switzerland, etc, to “put a human face on the biggest threat facing the planet”. Are we to assume they travelled between these places by bicycle, or would they like to publish their carbon footprint for this hypocritical project? Why did you not send money to people in these far-flung places to buy cheap cameras, and let them express their conditions? 
Peter Cullen Chippenham, Wiltshire 
Your cover story was timely, so it’s a shame that four of the five main destinations in the Travel section necessitated long-haul flights.
Jennifer Haigh Sheffield
Aren’t models supposed to be attractive? Your All Ages lineup of men just look underfed, bored and humourless. Some beefy muscle and a twinkle in the eye would help. None of these would make my shag list.
Mary Bauckham London SE7
Weekend style editors, you exhort us to make a “plumbing pipe candelabra” out of bits of pipe and a rusty nut or two, and to cut scouring pads into Xmas tree shapes (All Hands On Decs). I’m all for recycling, but if I plonked that lot on the table, I’d be laughed out of the dining room. And in All Ages you line up the guys for a fashion fiasco, especially the guy in the coat – poor critter looks like the sort of bloke who fashions candelabras out of plumbing bits and cuts up scourers.
Ali Cargill York
I had my nose pierced without my mum’s approval when I was a teenager. The worst consequences to be feared from this practice are not those detailed by Dr Tom Smith, but the many and varied ways your mum can hit the roof about jewellery in a nostril she inexplicably regards as belonging to her. If you do decide to have it done, commit to wearing it for ever in order to prove your point.
Claire Sheridan London SE23
Malcolm Ricks’s account about his homelessness was brilliantly uplifting, and showed that homelessness is not necessarily a final destination. It would be worth thinking about the groups whose support enabled Ricks to leave the streets – and whose funding will be one of the first victims of future public spending cuts.
Colin Parker Rugby, Warwickshire
“Perhaps it’s because I… have no social education,” writes Tim Dowling (12 December). Suddenly all his articles make sense.
Darren Evans Hull
Why on earth did Matthew Norman drive to Manchester)? The Modern is just a few minutes from the railway station.
David N Thomas Ciliau Aeron, Lampeter
I am glad Jared Leto doesn’t want to be remembered (Q&A, 12 December). I’d already forgotten who he was by the end of the interview.
Stuart Hannay West Sandwick, Shetland

Simon Clarke (Letters, 17 December) is spot-on that shooting crosses all social boundaries, particularly in clay pigeon shooting. This sport is pursued at all levels, from small shoots in farmers’ fields to the Olympics, with recent Commonwealth Games medals to show for it. I’m proud to be involved with the sport at county level, and I think it is representative that our top five ranking shooters in Cambridgeshire are a shopkeeper, a sheet-metal worker, a North Sea diver, a plant nursery worker and a lorry driver.
Rather than concentrating on shooting’s mythical toffness, you should consider why this sport gets such a bad press. Guns, when used illegally, can kill and injure people. But then so do cars, horses and even golf clubs. However, our sport has good participation from all social groups, ages and genders, and features both seated and standing disabled classes. It’s also a sport at which Britain does well: in the UT world championship this year, GB took both individual and team gold medals in four of the five age/gender categories (including overall gold), and both of the disabled category gold medals, along with five other medals. I don’t believe this received any coverage outside the specialist press. Should anyone (from any social background, even toffs!) wish to give it a try, find your local club at www.cpsa.co.uk.
David Christensen
Cambridgeshire Clay Pigeon Shooting Association
• “Suddenly it has become socially acceptable – fashionable even – to dress, sound, play, and even eat like the upper classes” (The day of the toff, G2 16 December). Not here, it hasn’t.
David Spraggon Williams
Ashington, Northumberland

Gender stereotyping and aggressive marketing in the toy industry goes back a long way (The power of pink, 12 December). In the 1700s the electress of Hanover gave her three daughters a large toy kitchen furnished with all the gadgets to mirror the kitchen in their palace. Her intention was that by playing with the toy kitchen they would learn how to run a home. Frank Hornby patented Meccano in 1901 specifically to introduce boys to engineering and mechanics. This he did very successfully through Meccano, Dinky Cars, the Hornby Railway system and a young engineers club. Due to limits in technology, the colouring of these and numerous other toys was limited.
The abundance of pink is relatively new to gender enforcement of toys and is a result of developments in plastics in the last 20 years or so. It is now easy and cheap to produce pink plastic in vast quantities. Consequently, toys can be mass produced in enormous quantities, usually by large conglomerate companies.
A successful toy company will always target its merchandise at children and parents/relations – the younger to nag the older to believe that what they are buying is of value to the learning and development of their offspring. In 1815 Maria Edgeworth bemoaned the rise of the commercial toy shop. She believed that children should be left to improvise and play with anything they found. She thought that by buying and giving a toy to a child, the adult was imbuing it with the message that it had to be liked and played with whether the child wanted to or not.
As it has been impossible to change the minds of those in charge of toy production and sales, the efforts of PinkStinks are to be congratulated.
Deborah Jaffe
Author of The History of Toys
• If pink is so powerful, I wonder why, as a teacher, I am surrounded by lots of wonderful students who are far less likely to be sexist than previous generations? Maybe it is because our attitudes towards gender are not so much based on what we consume, and even less on what we wear, but rather how we are socialised by much wider social forces than the colour of toys and clothes. Maybe the negative responses to such campaigns as PinkStinks are partly due to many of us realising that what kids dress up in is just not that important.
Peter Bolam
St Clement, Jersey
• I’d like to know which shops Phil Cohen (Letters, 15 December) is buying kids’ clothes from – in the ones I visit, the boys’ clothes are all pale blue and beige, whereas the girls have the bright colours (including pink). And no, I can’t get girls’ clothes for my grandsons because of all the frills, lacy edges and embroidered butterflies.
Jocelyn Rose
Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway
• What a relief to see the Present Sense movement growing (Report, 12 December). When I go into the home of young children I am saddened by the mountain of plastic toys littering the place – destined to harrass parents trying to keep the place tidy, to distress the children who are continually losing bits, and the planet by sitting around for ever in landfill! My daughter has considered trying to get a movement such as Present Sense off the ground among friends in her town. A good way to spread the idea would be to put a little acronym at the foot of any party invitation, just above “RSVP” – perhaps “GGW” (green gift welcomed) or “PSW” (Present Sense welcomed).
Eileen Peck
Thundersley, Essex
• The rereleased Red Shoes is even better than Peter Bradshaw says (Review, Film & Music, 11 December). Moira Shearer’s coronet-tiara is no “quaint” or “camp” stylistic oddity from the 1940s. It was just as unlikely as party wear then. It is a device that colours the otherwise “real” story that frames the eponymous fairytale ballet as itself a fairytale. As Vicky Page (note too her aristo family but every girl name) she indeed wears it twice: at the audience’s first sight of her, and then on her long, lonely, unreal ascent of the creepy, fantastical, ruined and weed-covered castle stairway to the meeting with the beast/magician/tempter Lermentov and her eventual doom. It identifies her as fairytale heroine with cinematic brilliance and subtlety.
James Alexander

The guilty verdicts against the murderers of Tulay Goren again highlight an abhorrent use of language (Report, 18 December). The crime has been called an “honour killing”. A girl was killed because she chose her own boyfriend, which infuriated her father so much he had her murdered. She was the victim of intolerance and brutality, her father an arrogant thug prepared to kill a daughter who would not sacrifice herself to his whim. To say this had anything to do with honour is to offer an excuse for atrocious bullying violence.
Martin Bailey
London
• If Labour and Tory are serious about co-operative ownership models (Letters, December 17), they should advocate the mutualisation of Treasury-owned banks by distribution of bank shares to all taxpayers and local authorities. Such shareholders cannot threaten to move offshore, unlike Steve Bell’s fat cats.
Dr Kaihsu Tai
Oxford
• In his obituary (15 December), Larry Elliott attributes the term “stagflation” to Paul Samuelson, in a 1974 seminar. Samuelson had actually used the term in some earlier, informal writings. But in fact it was coined by Iain Macleod, in a Commons speech as opposition Treasury spokesman, on 17 November 1965. “Stagflation” became journalistic lingua franca in the UK much earlier than in the US. The term, happily, does not apply to our present predicament, as business cycles are not all alike.
Ken Wallis
University of Warwick
• Just like some of his plays, by the time I got to the end of Tom Stoppard’s letter about MPs’ expenses (17 December), I didn’t really understand it. What I really don’t understand, though, is how the Labour party ended up with a minister called Quentin who has a stately home and a bell tower.
Andrew Watson
Herstmonceux, East Sussex
• Hated the wrapping paper, loved the calendar (G2, 18 December). Next year dispense with celebrities and get your readers to design the wrapping; plus ask (say) £5 per entry, the money to go to your Christmas charity.
Rachel David
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

You dressed up as Santa and ran around the outside of the house in red and white clothes on Christmas Eve. We were unaware of it until the adults said, “What’s that, did you see?”, and we looked up to see the flash of red whizz past the window. My brother, sister and I were still wondering if it was real or a hoax when you came down the stairs from your shower, claiming innocence. I thought there was something funny going on, but you had wet hair and I couldn’t be sure.
You were the one that squeezed your armchair out through the front door and on to the lawn in summer, so that you could have a beer while listening to the church bells. You were the one that drew the chalk face on the side of the outhouse and encouraged us to throw rotten apples at it for target practice. You said to imagine it was our headmaster, which we did and threw the apples with greater fury, watching them smash and dribble down the wall. After you died, it faded and each year we would come back and redraw it and play the same old games and pretend that everything was the same. But one year we couldn’t find the outline and didn’t know where to start.
It didn’t seem right that you were the one who was ill. We always said that you were our favourite uncle. You were the funniest, and you played with us more than the others. I remember you saying you didn’t feel right once, that you had a dodgy tummy. It must have gone on for a long time, but that was all I remember about you being ill.
Dad came to see you in the hospital. He went out for a walk with his brother, and you died before they got back. You didn’t wait to say goodbye. I was seven. You were only 36.
They explained that you had something wrong with your liver. And it was years later, walking along a beach in Normandy with my mother, that I really found out why. You were an alcoholic, she said, that’s why you died. It sounded so harsh and definite. I can’t remember ever seeing you drunk or drinking. Maybe you were on your best behaviour around us.
I wish that I’d known you, that I’d been older than my seven years. I wish that we’d had a proper conversation. Now that I think about it, I wonder if I knew you at all. I wonder if anyone did.
To me, you’re still the one who always had a joke to tell, who never left the village of your childhood, who moved into a caravan in your brother’s back garden and called it home, who sang all the time as we drove around in your rickety old van. The one whose eyes wrinkled up as you laughed.
After you died, my brother, sister and I claimed to still see you. In the middle of a car journey somewhere, we’d go to a village shop and run back out to the car and say, “It’s him, come and see.” Dad followed us back in once and bought something pointless just so he could stare at this man who looked like his brother. I looked for you in busy streets too; I was convinced that you were still alive somewhere, just hiding. There was a man busking on the high street the other day. He was playing the violin and I thought you could maybe look a bit like that now. And then I realised that it has been 20 years. There has always been a part of me that has refused to believe that you aren’t here any more. It is because you were more alive than anyone, and then one day you weren’t here any more.
Too young to be told the truth, we weren’t told much at all. We weren’t allowed to go to the funeral; we didn’t get to say goodbye. I wonder if that’s why it hangs open like this, like a mystery, an unfinished story. Elizabeth

The positive decision of the supreme court will encourage mixed-faith couples who wish to send their children to a Jewish school (Jewish school racially discriminated against boy, judges rule, 17 December). There are rabbis who accept a child as Jewish providing it has one Jewish parent, not necessarily the mother. In Judaism questions about a person’s religious status are usually limited to marriages, funerals and joining a community. It has not been a question that has applied to getting into a school. Educationists should concentrate on developing a child’s knowledge and abilities, and not be involved in any process of deciding who is a Jew, or who is a member of any other religion, and creating ghettos within ghettos.
Rabbi Guy Hall
London
• Jonathan Romain (Comment, 17 December) says M’s “father was born Jewish, his mother had converted to Judaism and the family led a Jewish life”, but later states “the child’s mother had converted through a non-Orthodox Jewish authority”. His assertion that “British Jewry has several different denominations – Orthodox, Reform, Liberal, Masorti – as does the church – Anglicans, Catholics, Baptists, Methodists and others”, is his opinion and not accepted by the Orthodox Jewish authorities. But he is a Reform clergyman opposed in principle to faith schools. From our point of view, the non-Orthodox deviate so much in ideology and practice from classical Judaism that they are, in essence, separate religions. A more apt analogy would have been the Unitarians, whom not all churches consider to be Christian at all.
Martin Stern
Salford
• If the supreme court ruling were to mean that children applying to Jewish schools might have “to sit religious tests” to ensure that schools were not discriminating against them on ethnic grounds, it would be a huge and damaging step backwards. In the 1944 Education Act, parliament had the good sense to introduce – in section 25 (3) – what was known as the conscience clause: “a pupil must not be required, as a condition of attending a school, either to attend or abstain from attending a Sunday school or a place of worship”. So inquiring into a parent’s religious practices was allowed, but quizzing a child on his was not. Nor should it be.
As soon as it can, parliament should ensure that a conscience clause of this kind should take priority over the interpretation now placed on “direct discrimination” in the Race Relations Act.
Peter Newsam
Chairman, Commission for Racial Equality, 1982-87; first chief schools adjudicator, 1998-2002

Independent:

The Independent’s appeal is to be congratulated. In particular, the article about the young Palestinians and Lebanese who are negotiating a very complicated milieu in Lebanon gives us hope for the future (“Rappers who speak their mind in the name of peace”, 18 December).
Over the past 12 months I have been in Beirut six times working with the Palestinian refugees whose conditions are described so graphically by Katherine Butler, and it is clear that young people there need a voice, an opportunity to express their hopes and aspirations. The refugee camps are stifling in the physical sense, but there is a tremendous amount of creativity just waiting for an outlet.
Earlier this year, the British actor-director David Morrissey led a team of actors holding a five-day drama workshop for Palestinian teenagers from camps across Lebanon. Held at the request of the UN Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA), the workshop saw young people travelling daily (and those who know Beirut’s traffic will know that this is no mean feat) to a school adjacent to Shatila refugee camp in south Beirut. It culminated with a performance in front of family, friends, UNRWA officials and, I’m pleased to say, the British ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy.
The students were given free rein to develop their own performance topics and some opted for a fantasy on “If Palestine was free, I’d . . .”; others worked on morality plays. All saw the week as an opportunity to break out of what is a very staid and rigid education system (think Britain in the Fifties and Sixties) and learn in an exciting and vibrant way.
Giving such youngsters a voice, and an opportunity to let that voice be heard, is essential if the anger is to dissipate and their undoubted energy is to be channelled towards positive community and inter-community activities. I hope The Independent’s appeal is a huge success.
Ibrahim Hewitt
Senior Editor, Middle East Monitor
London NW10
Dismal lessons of the BA dispute
It is now clear that the BA cabin staff had no idea what they were actually voting for, as even very senior officials of the union were not expecting such a prolonged and (self) destructive strike. It is depressing to read statements such as “I have a horrible feeling they may have got this one wrong. I will strike regardless, of course.”
If even a fraction of what Simon Calder has described about their remuneration and conditions of employment are correct, it is very difficult to have any sympathy for them. Both management and employees have a basic duty to care about the health of the company that employs them, regardless of any consideration for the public whose business they depend on. It is tragic to see a major company being destroyed by a shortsighted and intransigent workforce who can only see grievance where most of us would see good fortune.
As for a management that allowed such a situation to develop, the sooner that Branson or O’Leary takes over and gets rid of them, the better for all of us. Can it be coincidence that everything we read and see of British Airways reminds one of the BBC management structure?
Tom Simpson
Bristol
Your correspondents (letters, 16 December), in questioning whether BA staff and their trade union have “any compassion or concern” for the population, seem to have forgotten that there are two parties to this dispute. Why did they not criticise BA management for their “holding [travellers] to ransom”? (Ah, the nostalgia induced by coming across that well-worn mantra!)
Richard Carter
London SW15
“There is something wrong with a law that allows an employer to impose change but prevents a union from fighting back,” says the Unite union leader Derek Simpson. Surely there is something right with a law that insists that unions check their voting lists before rushing into strikes. As it is, given Unite’s apparently casual attitude to voting qualifications, how can we be sure that its leaders have been validly elected?
David Crawford
Bickley, Kent
Your sequence of letters (16 December) attacking British Airways cabin crew for their proposed strike ignores some significant points about strike action in general. The impression is given that strikers are some sort of alien species quite separate from “the rest of us” who live in a different world untainted by the actions of companies or governments.
Why should it be that working people have to put up with the sort of job-cutting treatment that BA have gone in for while top management receive monumental salaries and bonuses? Why should cabin crew sit back and accept a clear union-smashing operation which, if unions were to disappear, would make all our lives even more difficult?
Ged Peck
Luton, Bedfordshire
So we now have yet further evidence of just how fractured a society we live in. Apparently the average salary for BA aerial waiters (long-haul cabin crew) is £34,980: this is actually more than a post-threshold teacher gets after four years of higher education and training and then working for six years and submitting him or herself to a rigorous assessment to get on to the Upper Pay Scale!
The only thing more outrageous than the strike was any suggestion that it had anything to do with worker solidarity.
Mike Thompson
Maidstone, Kent
Beginning and end of the Circle line
The extended Circle line service will deliver more regular and reliable services for the vast majority of passengers (“All change please – how new tube line left passengers baffled”, 15 December). On the section to and from Hammersmith, where demand has grown in recent years, services will increase from seven to 12 trains per hour.
While the Circle line may be shown as a separate line on the tube map, it actually shares tracks with several other lines – the District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines – and always suffers when there is disruption to those services. By providing a start and end point, the Circle line’s reliability should be greatly improved; indeed performance on the first weekday shows significant improvement over the previous timetable.
We appreciate that there will be a little inconvenience for some customers who have to interchange at Edgware Road, but all customers will benefit from more reliable and regular services. An extensive campaign to inform customers through leaflets, posters, maps and announcements on stations and trains has also been implemented.
The extended Circle line is actually the first step in the upgrade of all these lines to significantly increase capacity and reliability, including the introduction of new air-conditioned trains from next year on the Metropolitan line.
Richard Parry
Managing Director London Underground
London SW1
When I arrive from the west at Paddington and want to continue clockwise on the Circle line route around London, Transport for London obliges me to take the Hammersmith & City eastwards rather than the now-interrupted Circle line. But my Oyster Card, recharged by a simple internet transaction, can’t be validated by the gates to the Hammersmith & City at Paddington – so I have no choice but to enter the Underground through the Circle line precinct.
I don’t know why someone in London Underground conceived the Spiral line, but I suspect it’s more for the convenience of train scheduling and maintenance than it is for the convenience of passengers.
Jon Summers
Stogumber, Somerset
Shame drivers who phone
Clifford Evans (letter, 14 December) is right about the stupidity of using mobile phones while driving, and the need for more severe penalties, but his proposed solution (tracking moving callers) is unworkable.
There is neither danger nor illegality in using a phone as a passenger, be it in a car, bus or train, and no system is likely to be able to distinguish between these.
What is needed, along with stiffer penalties, is better education – hard-hitting TV ads designed to embarrass and ridicule anyone who has such little disregard for the lives of others as to even consider using a phone while driving. It worked, to some extent, with drink-driving.
This has to become a crime that is looked down upon by society in general.
David Easton
Milton Keynes
‘Talented’ bankers look stupid
The “bankers” have only themselves to blame for the new tax on bonuses. Most banks in this country have not taken taxpayer’s money; whole departments in RBS and HBOS have made profits, but these facts are lost on the general public because banks have allowed the Government to paint them all with the same brush.
Bank staff at all levels who have contributed to profits and worked many hours without overtime deserve a reasonable bonus. Their employers have failed to make the case and instead issue threats about moving abroad, which makes them seem even more detached from the reality of most people’s lives.
The current government is one of the most ridiculous ever to hold office but it is still making the supposedly talented “bankers” look stupid.
Mike Ballard
Billericay, Essex
The threat of overpaid bankers to flee the country if they feel they are being excessively taxed is evocative of the wicked stepmother in a fairy tale, as she is about to meet her end, hissing, “You can’t get rid of me. You’re nothing without me!”
Of course we need highly skilled, appropriately rewarded people to manage our economy. What we do not need is people with vast financial clout pursuing of a gospel of self-interest with no social responsibility.
We need to see that there is no place in today’s world for rapacious economics in which the rich and powerful are able to enrich themselves while the powerless suffer the fallout. Thank God we are not communists. It is clear, however, that our capitalism needs to develop a social conscience if we are to avoid financial meltdowns of the kind we are witnessing.
We need to create a system that sees itself as a steward of wealth with an obligation to society. Such public spirit is more usually found in those who do not demand millions of pounds for their services.
Jeremy Legg
Bournemouth
The Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Philip Hampton has insisted that the bank must be allowed to pay “market rates” to staff in its investment bank. I agree with him. We should let them have what they deserve and what the market would have allocated them without any government intervention. Nothing.
Investment bankers extracted huge gains in the boom years, and then when it all went bad we all had to pay. They have privatised their gains and socialised their losses.
Eric Mattlin
London E1
MPs don’t get it
The number of MPs prepared to challenge Sir Thomas Legg’s demands that they repay expense claims has risen to 80. They will never accept that they have betrayed our trust. What will they think of next to restore their self-appointed rights of access to the public purse?
George Appleby
York
Unwelcome message
Brian Viner (17 December) repeats the common error of calling an annual “leaflet letter” a round robin. A round robin is a letter that will be unwelcome to the recipient, so the signatories write their names in turn in a circle so that no ringleader can be identified. The letter to which he refers might well be unwelcome, but I doubt if it is signed as a round robin.
Monica Finan
Formby, Merseyside
Doubtful claim
The writer of your article “Bonnie Prince Charlie in identity mix-up” (16 December) appears to have a dynasty mix-up of his own. He writes that the Young Pretender of 1745, Charles Stuart, was “the romantic hero of the Tudor claim”. The Tudors stopped claiming the throne in 1485 when they won it at Bosworth Field.
Mike Park
London SE9
Cheque in the post
The banks may well wean us off our long-held habit of using cheques, but how do we find an alternative when sending money to children or grandchildren? Cheques will be difficult to replace.
David Wilkie
Port Erin, Isle of Man
Surreal president
I don’t like to be picky, but I can’t help thinking that the title of your article about George W Bush (“The surreal afterlife of an Ex-President”, 15 December) embraces the preposterous implication that Dubya’s presidency was itself something other than surreal.
James Boyle
Dunlop, East Ayrshire

Times:

Sir, My former diplomatic colleague George Walden (Opinion, Dec 17) perceptively links the attempted arrest of the former Israeli Foreign Minister with British “literal-mindedness” in following directives from supranational organisations. But he is wrong also to link it to a “climate of creeping anti-Semitism in this country”. Anti-Israel is different from anti-Semitic.
There is, happily, little anti-Semitism in Britain compared with the 1930s, but a growing tide of outrage at Israel’s behaviour towards the Palestinians. It has been necessary to make such distinction at least since 1919, when the first Zionists arriving in Palestine to look for a homeland angered, by their arrogance, the Jews who had lived in Jerusalem for centuries under the Ottomans, guarding the holy sites.
Sir Alistair Hunter
Broadstairs, Kent

Dennis Levene wrote:
Charles, my earlier comment was aimed at Sir Alastair’s contention that “There is, happily, little anti-Semitism in Britain compared with the 1930s”.
I apologise for the confusion.
December 18, 2009 11:03 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Arthur Nowr wrote:
For we who live in a secular society, where the state and the national religion are clearly not one in the same, the separation between anti-semitism and anti-Israel is quite reasonable. But to Israelis there is no such distinction as they believe the state of Israel is for Jews not for anyone else. Therefore, being anti-Israel is the same as being anti-Jew. One could argue, on the basis of logic, that being against Israel is not against all Jews because the majority live outside Israel. However, such is the bond of unity among Jews worldwide, to offend the state is to offend them all.
December 18, 2009 8:51 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Charles Bockett-Pugh wrote:
Strange comment from Dennis Levene. Anti-semitism is prejudice or hostility against Jews. The state of Israel has broken international law. Where is the error?
December 18, 2009 7:35 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (2)
Report Abuse
Permalink

Dennis Levene wrote:
Thank you Sir Alistair, I now feel much safer. Minimal research would show that your perception of anti-semitism is quite at odds with reality. Please do some reading and get yourself some facts before committing yourself to print.
December 18, 2009 6:30 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (1)
Report Abuse
Permalink

Peter Cressall wrote:
I should like to remind Sir Alistair Hunter that Arabs and Jews are both Semites. He is however right to distiguish between Jews and Israel. The former is an ethnic group who suffered much over the centuries. The latter is an aggressive, expansionist State which uses the past mistreatment of Jews to justify its atrocities in Palestine.

Sir, As senior members of the US nuclear physics community, we are writing to register our dismay and disbelief at the recent funding decisions that will have catastrophic long-term consequences to the field of nuclear physics in the UK and worldwide (report, Dec 17). These cuts will do dramatic and irreversible harm to the university groups that depend upon grant funding. The UK nuclear science effort is simply world class. To list but two examples: its scientists belong to leading groups developing technologies that will have enormous impact in medical imaging applications, and they have many leadership roles in large international projects. Given the level of funding this field receives compared with other advanced nations, this is a record that should be celebrated and encouraged, not cut so severely.
Nuclear physics is a core component of any balanced science portfolio. It is the study of the unique system that is responsible for the reactions that fuel the stars, such as our Sun, providing the energy necessary for life. It is these same nuclear reactions that give birth to the chemical elements of which we are made. The atomic nucleus and its building blocks display a remarkable diversity of phenomena that need to be explained for the benefit of science and humankind. It is a vital and vibrant area of research, which is being invested in by developed (and developing) countries around the world. The UK community, up until this point, has played a leading role in mankind’s “grand challenge” to understand the atomic nucleus.
UK scientists play a significant role in this quest. Given the quality of research performed and the training of the next generation of scientists vital to the future of society, we strongly urge the UK authorities to reconsider this disastrous and unfair funding decision.
Richard Casten, Yale University
Lawrence Cardman, Jefferson Laboratory
Roderick Clark, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Robert Janssens, Argonne National Laboratory
Curtis A. Meyer, Carnegie Mellon University
Witold Nazarewicz, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Mark Riley, Florida State University
Bradley Sherrill, Michigan State University
James Symons, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Robert Tribble, Texas A&M University
Michael Wiescher, University of Notre Dame
Kim Lister, Argonne National Laboratory
Paul Fallon, Llawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Charles Bockett-Pugh wrote:
Only to be expected from a 3rd world government that is financially and morally bankrupt.
December 18, 2009 7:25 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Tim Reilly wrote:
It makes you weep.

Thank you USA for this generous gesture. I am a “coloured pencil” subject guy but I am absolutely convinced of the necessity for physics -and all the Natutral Sciences – scholarship in the UK.

It attempts to answer both the most elemental questions in life as well as some of the most metaphysical and abstract challenges about who/what mankind is. That’s good enough for me.

As usual with Nulab’ an edict from HMG has filtered down via Treasury – and the criminal imbeciles at individual ministerial level have been given the train set to de-construct for the afternoon.

I don’t suppose they will touch “media studies” or “cross cultural gender studies” for fear of diluting the future Civil Service graduate intake, or offending the selection boards of political parties.

Had I a UK physics degree I would be applying for that Green Card right now and by the sounds of it, the US academic community would pay the air fare to get you there for the New Year faster than you can say E=MC2.

How I loathe – and despair of -politicians.

Sir, T. Cooney (letter, Dec 18) asks why the entry criteria to JFS are more stringent than Israel’s law of return. This question underlines the perverse nature of the UK’s Racism Act, where the Supreme Court was careful to note that, while the school had transgressed the law, it had not acted in a racist way.
Israel’s law of return was framed to protect Jews from persecution. The Nazis, when deciding whether to kill someone as a Jew, were not so discerning as to whether they would be regarded as Jewish under Jewish law. Hence the protective law of return was framed more widely.
JFS was set up with the positive aim of educating Jewish children in a Jewish environment, and so framed its criteria simply to cover Jews as defined by Jewish law.
Matthew Pearlman
London NW4

william garrett wrote:
Matthew Pearlman says Israel’s law of return was framed to protect Jews from persecution.

In 1948 Israel ethnically cleansed Palestine of 60% of its population.

So to make room for Jews who may be persecuted in the future Israel persecuted the indigenous population by driving them into exile. What kind of morality is this?

Sir, The Ipsos MORI poll (report, Dec 16), in which a sample of MPs are deemed to support physician assisted suicide, used the euphemism “helping to die”, which perpetrates the myth about how people die. Assisted suicide and euthanasia do not involve using morphine or similar drugs; the massive overdoses of barbiturate used do not require medical skill.
Our speciality cares for dying patients, working to relieve distress and accompany those facing death. But that is fundamentally different to deliberately foreshortening life by months or years. It is a doctor’s duty to relieve suffering; that does not mean killing the sufferer.
Religion is not relevant here. As specialists in care of the dying, we have met countless terminally ill patients who viewed death as their solution, only to say weeks or months later that they never realised that life could become so rich and fulfilling again. Doctors cannot go in two directions at once: striving to relieve distress and simultaneously giving up such efforts by assisting suicide. We have seen countless patients whose situation was viewed as hopeless, but for whom much could be done to restore quality to the end of their life; it did not involve killing them.
Dr Bill Noble
Professor Baroness Finlay
Dr Bee Wee
aAssociation for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland
Sir, The Ipsos MORI poll (report, Dec 16), in which a sample of MPs are deemed to support physician assisted suicide, used the euphemism “helping to die”, which perpetrates the myth about how people die. Assisted suicide and euthanasia do not involve using morphine or similar drugs; the massive overdoses of barbiturate used do not require medical skill.
Our speciality cares for dying patients, working to relieve distress and accompany those facing death. But that is fundamentally different to deliberately foreshortening life by months or years. It is a doctor’s duty to relieve suffering; that does not mean killing the sufferer.
Religion is not relevant here. As specialists in care of the dying, we have met countless terminally ill patients who viewed death as their solution, only to say weeks or months later that they never realised that life could become so rich and fulfilling again. Doctors cannot go in two directions at once: striving to relieve distress and simultaneously giving up such efforts by assisting suicide. We have seen countless patients whose situation was viewed as hopeless, but for whom much could be done to restore quality to the end of their life; it did not involve killing them.
Dr Bill Noble
Professor Baroness Finlay
Dr Bee Wee
aAssociation for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland

Arthur Nowr wrote:
To say that religion is not relevant is quite silly. Our societal attitudes to life stem from religion. The fact that suicide is illegal is because “God gives life and only God can take it away.” If one has no religion, and believes in the practical approach to life and death, assisted dying becomes a very straightforward subject. The fact is that we are born, we live and we die. We are all expendable in the end, and this obsession we have with preserving life at all costs, is just wrong.
December 18, 2009 8:59 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (1)
Report Abuse
Permalink

marcus toomster wrote:
Because doctors respect the trust patients put in them….
December 18, 2009 6:48 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (18)
Report Abuse
Permalink

Laurence Skermer wrote:
“As specialists in care of the dying, we have met countless terminally ill patients who viewed death as their solution, only to say weeks or months later that they never realised that life could become so rich and fulfilling again” How many wished that they had died, however? Once again this is not an either-or queston; some may prefer to try palliative care some may not. Incidentally I know several Doctors capable of going in multiple directions simultaneously.
December 18, 2009 6:46 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (1)
Report Abuse
Permalink

Peter Cressall wrote:
If politicians can go in at least two directions at once, why not doctors?
December 18

Sir, Chris Dillow is correct to point out the ambiguity in the concept of unemployment (“Double it and you get the real jobless total”, Opinion, Dec 18). Developed countries adopt the International Labour Organisation definition, which involves being both willing and able to work and to have taken steps to seek work in the last four weeks. By these criteria many out-of-work people are excluded from the unemployment statistics.
In a sense, unemployment is a problem of rich countries where wider family incomes and state support mean people can spend a long time without work. In poor countries the option of not working doesn’t really exist. And indeed, nearer home, unemployment is not a real option for many who have to take any work going. This applies even among graduates.
Some years ago I was involved in research that indicated that, six months after graduation, children of middle-class parents were more likely to be unemployed (controlling for degree classification and so forth) than graduates from poorer backgrounds who did not have parental resources to fall back on.
Professor J. R. Shackleton
Dean, Royal Docks Business School, University of East London

Paul Jefferies wrote:
“That is why this nation has slipped down the pan, there are insufficient real jobs to deal with the number of people out of work.”

Yet there are plenty of jobs that need doing. Here’s a few to start us off: Recycling – sorting items for recycling is uneconomical but it you’re already paying people then why not have them do this? Indeed couldn’t the unemployed be used as an auxillary force – clearing snow, making sandbags, cutting back foliage on footpaths and pavements, litter picking at beaches, graffitti cleaning. Why not expect a return on Benefits?

Performance could be used to indicate employability, poor performance would mean no “pay”. These are all activities that no one is being paid to do now so there should be no unwanted job losses.

We could also demand some days a month working for charity or taking an educational course. Clearly some time is needed for job hunting too.
December 19, 2009 12:21 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend?
Report Abuse
Permalink

Kenneth ARMITAGE wrote:
“By these criteria many out-of-work people are excluded from the unemployment statistics.” Precisely. According to figures on the ONS website, “the employment rate for August to October 2009 was 72.5 per cent….to reach 28.93 million”.

That means 27.5 per cent of the working age population in UK are not employed and contributing to the nation through income and indirect taxation. Interpolating the figures means there are 7.96 million people of working age 16-65, who are not employed and classed as economically inactive.

Deducting the ILO figure of 2.49 million officially unemployed leaves another 5.47 million who do not seem to appear in any list of unemployed people but there are 2.6 million on long-term incapacity benefit and that still leaves another 2.87 million people who are either part of the black economy or they are being paid some form of social security benefit payment. That is why this nation has slipped down the pan, there are insufficient real jobs to deal with the number of people out of work. It’s employment, stupid!

Sir, The idea that the Iraq inquiry would be more likely to establish the truth if it employed lawyers (“Absence of lawyers means Iraq inquiry will not get to truth, ministers warned”, Dec 18) flies in the face of the evidence.
Parliament is packed with lawyers, all of whom should be helping to protect the State. During many hours of debate not one of them managed to discover the truth about the Iraq war, indeed most seemed to be either concealing the truth or incapable of finding truth anywhere.
Now lawyers are arguing that they should be paid to help the Chilcot inquiry when really what they want is to be paid. Chilcot seems to be discovering more truth than any lawyer-packed inquiry has done or is likely to do.
Saul Gresham
Skewen, W Glamorgan

Telegraph:
SIR – Abolishing the cheque is indeed yet another hare-brained scheme not thought through (Letters, December 18).
We help run a local theatregoers group of about 200 and certainly couldn’t function without the use of cheques. Does the chief executive of the Payments Council want thousands of pounds in cash being sent through the post?
 
Related Articles
Mortgages and bank accounts to be given health-style warnings
SPL clubs on brink if Setanta collapse
James Purnell: the latest in Labour’s long line of temps who have failed us on pensions
Blogosphere ‘revolution’ is as phoney as our redundant parliamentary system
House prices: it’s cheaper to buy than to rent
On a personal note, having suffered card and internet fraud, we find the cheque the safest way of paying for ordered goods. Also, holiday companies add a surcharge if paying by card. And how will Premium Bond winners receive their prizes?
Just a few instances – there must be many more. A campaign is needed.
Philip and Margaret Trickett
Fairford, Gloucestershire
SIR – I transferred some privatisation shares to my grandson. When an opportunity arose for him to buy rights issues I advised him to take up the offer.
He doesn’t have a chequebook – as a 19-year-old with an online bank account he didn’t see the need. Unfortunately, the shares could only be purchased with a personal cheque or, after finding someone else, ie, his grandmother, with an authorised third-party cheque.
Who was making the shares offer? Lloyds Banking Group through Equiniti. And the banks want to get rid of cheques?
Marion Davies
Middleton on the Hill, Shropshire
SIR – My understanding is that cheques are legal documents governed by the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, and the Cheques Acts of 1957 and 1992. Surely then, only Parliament can discontinue their use? Or perhaps they should be made legal tender to safeguard their future.
James Taylor
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
SIR – Now that cheques, which are promissory notes, are endangered, is there any hope for paper money issued by banks who “promise to pay the bearer”?
George Coppen
Kildary, Ross-shire
SIR – How appropriate that your picture of a young Gordon Brown (Mandrake, December 17) should show a striking resemblance to Jonathan Creek, both masters of illusion.
It is also interesting to note that on the offending cheque, the refusal to pay does not include the rider “please re-present”. This indicated that there were unlikely to be funds available in the foreseeable future. Nothing changed there, then.
Chris Holleworth
Earl Shilton, Leicestershire
BA and the unions
SIR – It’s an unlikely scenario, I know, but imagine that Gordon Brown, following a crushing election defeat, contests the results in court on the grounds that a number of ballot papers were sent out to people who intended to emigrate. A judge decides that, since he doesn’t approve of the election result, that’s a good enough excuse to declare the whole thing void and leave Mr Brown in charge.
I wonder what your reaction would be. I doubt if it would be purringly approving (Leading article, December 18).
I’ve no time for the Unite union, but the judgment concerning British Airways looks to me like a classic example of a hard case making very dodgy law.
Peter Lucas
Edinburgh
SIR – The news that BA beat Unite has made my day. The Unite team who thought up the dispute have been shown to be incompetent, but I have no doubt they will be back again in the new year.
I hope that any passengers who have suffered because of this recent uncertainty will look into taking a class action.
Douglas Hamilton
Porthmadog, Gwynedd
SIR – Derek Simpson has sheepishly said: “It was never our intention to disrupt the passengers.” Really? Just which planet did he think BA flew to?
Tim Dann
London SW3
SIR – In the spirit of Christmas I would ask your readers to spare a thought for the passengers released by the High Court into the hands of the disgruntled and frustrated BA cabin crews over the Christmas period.
I would recommend they purchase sandwiches and bottled water before getting on the aeroplane.
Robert Speed
Weybridge, Surrey
Away in a card game
SIR – A few years ago at this time of year, I went into a local gift shop that sold china ornaments and asked the girl if she had any “crib figures” (Letters, December 18).
Without a moment’s hesitation she said that they did not sell card games. I left without pursuing the matter.
Cdr Bill Nimmo-Scott
Pewsey, Wiltshire
SIR – While out in the car this week I saw two signs saying “Xmas Reeves”.
What are they, I wonder?
Elizabeth Higgs
Badlesmere, Kent
SIR – My fourth granddaughter, Gigi, was fizzing with excitement this week at the prospect of her third Christmas and innocently produced a word that will delight the politically correct everywhere.
I do hope that “Presmas” has no chance of entering the vernacular.
David Negus
Balsall Common, West Midlands
Friends reunited
SIR – Those of us in our later years enjoy cruising the death announcements on your Court & Social page. Without any particular malice, we like to know whom we have outlived.
I cannot be the only octogenarian who wants to know what has happened to long-past girlfriends. So can you please encourage contributors to the deaths to include the maiden names of deceased ladies? Indeed, why not list them in alphabetical order at the foot of the page?
Alan Broad
Oxford
The gamekeeper’s turnip
SIR – Surely the explanation for the picture on yesterday’s letters page is perfectly clear.
The gamekeeper is in a belligerent mood. Otherwise, he would have left his cap and gun outside the library. To demonstrate his sad condition, derived from poor food and low wages, he has the impertinence to offer his employer a piece of turnip from which a bite has already been taken; the residue can still be seen on the keeper’s lips.
His claim will be rejected as the squire is clearly shown with a bad attack of gout.
Lord Barber of Tewkesbury
London SW1
SIR – Turnips, which are rich in vitamins and minerals, are used for respiratory and kidney disorders, especially kidney stones.
As the painting is called “The Demurrer”, I can only surmise that the turnip is the “defence” against the squire’s malady.
On the other hand, the gamekeeper could just be saying: “Here, put your teeth in before I shoot your foot off.”
Mike Bridgeman
Market Lavington, Wiltshire
SIR – With no gamekeeper to test the theory, I can only assert that were I to be offered a slice of uncooked turnip – apparently with a bite already taken from it – I too would demur.
Steve Simmons
Camberley, Surrey
Imperfect clichés
SIR – C M Alexander (Letters, December 18) dislikes the cliché “to be honest”. A far worse phrase is “to be perfectly honest”, implying imperfect honesty is the norm.
Clive Pilley
Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex
Festive disclaimers
SIR – This year my old school’s Christmas card came by email (Letters, December 18) with its standard footnote warning that: “The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of George Watson’s College.”
Ho, ho, ho.
Iain K. S. Gray
London SW15
SIR – How do I decorate my home with e-cards at Christmas and show I have more friends than you?
John Harris
Worthing, West Sussex
The Falklands campaign and the future of the RAF
SIR – Lt Col Berchem’s comments (Letters, December 16) on dividing RAF assets between the Army and the Royal Navy have obviously raised the level of inter-service rivalry.
However, when Wg Cdr Quin (Letters, December 18) cites the Falklands as an example of the importance of air power, he appears to have forgotten that ground‑attack missions were carried out by the Royal Navy’s Sea Harriers, as well as by RAF Strike Command’s Harriers (which were all ship-based).
It’s not too difficult to work out that an expanded Fleet Air Arm, given the equipment, could easily have performed all the Falklands’ “fast-jet” missions.
Many people have forgotten the role played in the first Gulf war by that wonderful old Royal Navy bomber, the Buccaneer. If the Navy had retained them, together with carrier-based fighter and early warning radar aircraft, the Falklands invasion may not have occurred.
Mike Hannah
Hardwick, Cambridgeshire
SIR – The US Marine Corps offers perhaps the optimum command structure, in which the air element is totally integrated under the overall command of a land force element commander.
It may be concluded from this that air assets in support of land operations should “belong” to the Army, whereas those in support of maritime operations should be a naval asset.
My only minor disagreement with Lt Col Berchem is that strategic airlift should be undertaken by aircraft taken up from trade, rather than becoming a dedicated Army asset.
Michael Nicholson
Dunsfold, Surrey
SIR – I used to work quite closely with the Army Air Corps and always remember the comment made to me by a very senior Air Force officer: “If God had wanted the Army to fly, He would have made the sky brown.”
Wg Cdr W.R. McQueen (retd)
Craigmore, Isle of Bute
SIR – Along with the lies “Of course I’ll love you in the morning” and “I’m from personnel, I’m here to help”, we will sadly miss: “The cheque’s in the post.”
Tony Manning
Barton on Sea, Hampshire
Irish Times:

Clerical child abuse
Madam, – I am a 62-year-old ex-pat Irishman living in Australia.
As a young child, I was molested by a Catholic priest. I did at one stage approach my local parish priest, who in turn contacted our bishop (of Clogher).
The priest continually abused kids and young men, but the church continually swept it under the carpet. I thought the matter was resolved.
As a result of this, as soon as I became an adult, I disavowed the Catholic Church. I still suffer recurrent nightmares about this priest’s abuse. When it first happened, he would have been in his mid-20s.
It did not occur once, but many times. When it first happened, I approached my mother, whom I loved dearly, but, typical of the real Irish Catholic, I got a slap on the face, and was told not to “speak about a priest like that”. Unfortunately, that was the attitude from the 1950s.
If this person is extradited from the US, I am prepared to fly to Ireland and testify against him, and also name other witnesses who may not yet have come forward.
Some years ago, I met a lady who gave me comfort and solace from this nightmare, but sadly she passed away three months ago. Now all my pent up anger has surfaced again. All I want is the ultimate justice. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CREEDON,
Woodfield Street,
Enfield,
Adelaide, Australia.
Child protection in primary schools
Madam, – The Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN), following a survey of 630 primary schools, said 80 per cent of school principals has deep-rooted concerns in relation to child protection in primary schools in Ireland (Breaking News, December 18th). This is an alarming, unacceptable and very dangerous situation.
School principals are the designated liaison people for the implementation of child protection policies and procedures in schools. They also sit on boards of management with which they are obliged to raise all such concerns.
The question must now be urgently posed: if 80 per cent of primary school principals have deep-rooted concerns, what are they doing about it? Are they in effect telling the public they have not been doing their jobs? It would appear from these comments of IPPN that Irish children are still very much at risk in our schools. Such an appalling scenario, in the wake of the Ferns, Ryan and Murphy reports, raises the imperative need for a wide-ranging and soul-searchingly honest debate on every aspect of child protection and safety in this country.
The Opposition is breaking the ground here. Alan Shatter TD, in particular, has raised vital concerns in the Dáil on issues pertaining to child protection. For example, he drew attention to the telling fact that the Government was unaware of how many children died in State care in the past six years.
Could the Minister of State for Children, Barry Andrews, explain why his department is now engaged in a third attempt to gather information from the Catholic Church on child protection, while showing no sign of having done anything with the two previous audits? I now ask Mr Andrews to state unequivocally that he has full confidence in the integrity of State files, in order to allay any suspicions that this third attempt is merely an exercise to distract the public from a Government department being in as much disarray, regarding the safeguarding of children, as the Catholic Church has been previously.
The Ministers with responsibility for education, health and children now have an obligation to conduct a rigorous audit of every body and organisation, religious and non-religious, in terms of the safety of children and young people and publish the findings of it as soon as possible.
Every citizen in a Republic must be instrumental in making those with responsibility, in every walk of life, collectively accountable for the safety of children throughout every sector of Irish society. This issue is too important for cynical and opportunistic posturing.
There is no excuse, as we enter shortly a new decade, for Irish children to be in continued danger in any school or system whatsoever. It is time for the collective responsibility and accountability called for by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to be applied, not only in the church, but in Government, health, education, sport and wherever else the welfare of the young could be adversely affected. – Yours, etc,
Fr PATRICK McCAFFERTY,
Lower Rathmines Road,
Dublin 6.
ECT without consent
Madam, – I have been following the recent correspondence on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) with more than a degree of personal interest.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia, my mother was for many years confined in a British residential institution, during which she was subjected to several sessions of ECT. Despite misgivings, my father was persuaded by her medical consultants to sanction the treatment on her behalf. She never forgave him for this, and I am not sure that he ever forgave himself either. Being forced to endure this humiliating and obviously terrifying treatment, wholly against her will, significantly exacerbated the paranoia to which she was already prone. More than 40 years later, I remain convinced that, in the end, it was a significant factor in her decision to take her own life. – Yours, etc,
DARIUS BARTLETT,
College View,
Midleton,
Co Cork.
Madam, – We very much appreciate all the recent letters of support on the subject of forced ECT. In addition, we would like to point out that there are other no less deserving survivors who, even in the face of the stigma referred to by Dr Siobhan Barry (December 14th), have spoken against the practice at public protests which have taken place in Cork for the last three years.
As regards Dr Barry’s claim that forced ECT is ethically well- founded, similar claims were made by psychiatry as recently as the mid 20th century in relation to insulin-coma therapy and pre-frontal lobotomy.
Forced ECT is a perfect metaphor for the domination/control model of bio-psychiatry yet incredibly, Dr Barry claims it to be “a human right” when in reality it is the opposite, to be ranked alongside other violations such as forced drugging and compulsory treatment orders.
In a democratic society people have the right to choose. Why are people with psycho/social problems treated differently? –
MARY JIM MADDOCK,
MindFreedom Ireland,
Rochestown,
Cork.
Closure of bioethics council
Madam, – May I express my deep dismay at the news that the Irish Council for Bioethics is to lose its funding and cease to exist. Having been a member of the council in its first term, I must record my appreciation for and admiration of the great expertise and enthusiasm of the membership, in particular the legal, ethical, medical, scientific and other members who volunteered their services so unreservedly. Your report (Home News, December 16th) summarises well the principal achievements of the council which has undertaken studies on a range of topics of importance to the public – patient consents, living wills, embryonic stem-cell research and the like – and has published a series of key documents and reports. For each study, the council has actively sought the views of the general public and has represented such views objectively and comprehensively in its publications. The high quality of these documents reflects, too, the great contributions of Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan (whose reported comments I support fully) and her three colleagues, who form the secretariat, which oversaw the production of each publication.
As scientific director, Dr O’Sullivan has represented the council at meetings of comparable international bodies, and is fully aware of the negative consequences of Ireland’s future absence.
Finally, when I read of the recent Supreme Court decision and comments in regard to embryos, I thought of them as a perfect justification – if one were needed – for the activities of the council. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK FLANAGAN,
Whitehall Road,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.
Climate change – a burning issue
Madam, – Reducing carbon emissions is the reason more than 130 world leaders made the journey to Copenhagen for the climate change conference. Burning waste – instead of recycling it – increases carbon emissions, and work has now started on an incinerator in Dublin which is planned to have double the capacity that’s needed. So who is going to pay for the emissions caused by burning waste instead of recycling it? It won’t, we suggest, be the promoters of the project.
It is also proposed to build another incinerator, this time on a flood-prone Cork site which spent part of late November under water. If a future flood spreads pollution around Cork city, who will pay for the clean-up? If the recent flooding shows anything, it is that the cost of bad planning is borne by ordinary people, while there is no recourse against project promoters and administrators who facilitate ill-considered proposals. – Yours, etc,
JAMES NIX,
Centre for Ecological Living and Training, Feasta, Forest Friends, Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment & Zero Waste Alliance Ireland,
Dublin 2.
Up with maths, down with Santa?
Madam, – I recently had the pleasure of watching the movie Up with my six-year-old daughter. Afterwards, she was keen to calculate how many balloons would be required to carry her up to outer space.
In our experiment, we calculated that six helium balloons could carry a weight of 34 grams. So we needed 3,141 balloons to carry my daughter who weighs in at 17.8 kilos.
Now we need to figure out how long it will take Santa to bring all those balloons down the chimney? Who said maths can’t be fun? – Yours, etc,
KEVIN GALLIGAN,
Weirview Drive,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.
Time for the Angelus to go?
Madam, – In response to Robin Bury of the Reform Group (December 12th), may I ask, why stop with the Angelus, why not ban from our airways, Handel’s magnificent Messiah, the glorious Christmas carols, Karl Jenkins’s Mass for peace and the Mozart and Bach Masses? Mr Bury has his work cut out. – Yours, etc,
CATHERINE LOUGHRAN,
Ard Esmuinn,
Dundalk, Co Louth.
Madam, – Would Frank Farrell (December 18th) be bothered if non-believers were allowed a minute after every Angelus to remind believers what we think about God? – Yours, etc,
AIDAN COMERFORD,
Racehill Park,
Ashbourne, Co Meath.

Well I must be off

best wishes John